by Steve Marshall

Created on: April 08, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

Rhyming poetry is a special form of poetry that has certain characteristics, and a few special rules, and guidelines to it all. In this brief article, I hope to enlighten you a bit, and so to touch on a few basics, and some of the more interesting features of rhyming poetry.

These guidelines, although not strict, in the sense of restricting the flow of the poetry, nevertheless, contribute to, and so define this particular style of poetry. It is said to be harder to write, and maybe harder to teach, but my word, it is more enjoyable to write, and to read, I think. It adds to the overall rhythm, and can also add an encaptivating beat, I think, to the poem, or to the piece of poetry, that you are reading, or writing.

The use of rhyme in poetry, is a poetical usage that heightens, and elevates poetry above normal prose, or literature. Language and sound are emphasized, in such a way that similar sounding words are said to rhyme. A rhyme is a word that sounds similar, or the same in some way, to the other word being used.

For example, the English words paddock and haddock, are said to rhyme in possessing the same ending, and also sound similarly, in pronunciation.

In English, sometimes a particular vowel will be emphasised, or stressed in the word. For example, the word beaches, and the word teaches, both emphasise the first vowel, and the sound then carries through, to the end of the word. This type of rhyme, is known as a true rhyme. Mother, and brother, or even ocean, and lotion, or emotion, are further examples of true rhyming words.

I have heard it beautifully said, that stress is that which makes words musical, and so makes music of the spoken word.

To complicate the issue just a little, there are also different types of true rhyme. Usually there are said to be 3 major divisions or types, of true rhymes.

MASCULINE RHYMES

In this usage, the last syllable of the word ,or the last syllable in the line, is highlighted and stressed in the rhyme.

Some very simple examples are the words: strong, prong and long; or short, ought and bought.

FEMININE RHYMES

This form of rhyme is more complicated, as females tend to be, for us males, anyway! Here two consecutive, or running syllables, are selected to be rhymed together, in this way. A two syllable word is of course, normally a slightly longer word. Remember, that a syllable is a basic unit of elementary sound of speech, incorporating an uninterrupted and complete sound.

In our case here, it's a word, or a part of a word, and it

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