weight rhymed and in the 18th century, joy rhymed with high. Owing to changes in pronunciation these are no longer admissible. Wind, however, is a word which in poetry keeps its old pronunciation; it is usually rhymed on the sound of kind and not on that of sinned. 3. Kinds of Rhyme As might be inferred from the foregoing pages, there are various kinds of rhyme: Masculine, or single, rhyme consists of a rhyme on one syllable only, as day, pray. Feminine, or double, rhyme is a rhyme on two syllables, as token, spoken; so also unbroken, because the last two syllables rhyme in sound with token and are accented similarly, without any reference to the first syllable un. Triple rhyme is a rhyme on three syllables, as scornfully, mournfully. Masculine rhyme gives force, feminine usually gives lightness and grace, while triple is seldom employed except in humorous verse, although Hood uses it in one of his serious poems: THE BRIDGE OF SIGHS One more unfortunate, Weary of breath, Rashly importunate, Gone to her death! Take her up tenderly, Young, and so fair! 4. Location of Rhymes By rhyme we usually mean end-rhyme, or the agreement in sound of the final words of the lines. End-rhyme was adopted in England after the Norman conquest and was imitated from the rhyming meters of the widely used Latin hymns. The simplest form of Latin hymn meter became the ordinary English ballad measure, which will be treated under The Ballad. The Normans in the reign of Henry II introduced the lyric poetry of Provence and Aquaitaine into England, and although the people remained satisfied with simple ballad measure, the court and clerkly poets were much influenced by these new meters. In the 13th century they rhymed with grace and facility, as is shown by a few scraps of song which have come down to us, and by the beginning of the 14th century more complicated rhyme-schemes were used in England than were after attempted until we reach the recent imitations of French artificial meters, which also require a separate and later treatment. The following example of graceful rhyme is the first stanza of a love lyric from one of the Harleian manuscripts. It is written in the Southern Saxon dialect and was evidently intended to be sung, for it has a refrain. In fact it almost sings itself. Bytuené Mersh ant Averil, When spray beginneth to springe, Ich libbe in love-longinge An hendy hap ichabbe yhent; Ichot from hevene it is me sent; In English poetry we are not confined to end-rhymes, but occasionally use other forms, such as beginning-rhyme, wherein the first syllable of each rhyming line rhymes. Although some authors treat beginning-rhyme as if it were the same as alliteration, there is really a decided difference a mere examination of the two forms should show this. (See chapter on Alliteration and Assonance.) The following specimen of beginning-rhyme is from Hood's "The Bridge of Sighs." Observe that end-rhyme is also used. Mad from life's history, Glad to death's mystery. So unusual a rhyme-scheme should be used charily for it is really only ornamental, and, indeed, it has been seldom adopted by poets of distinction. Not content with end-rhyme and beginning-rhyme, poets occasionally use internal-rhyme, generally using endrhyme also. Some of the rhyme-schemes of the old Latin hymn writers, from which our English poets often took their patterns, were very complicated; for instance, that of "Jerusalem the Golden," by the French monk, Bernard of Cluny, who was Bernard de Morlas. The original, which he believed to be the direct result of inspiration, contains forty-three stanzas of unequal length, and is entitled "The Celestial Country." Another Latin poem was written in 1145 by the same Bernard. It contains three thousand lines and furnishes the most remarkable examples of both internal- and end-rhyme extant. DE CONTEMPTU MUNDI Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus Ecce minaciter imminet arbiter ille supremus. Imminet, imminet et mala terminet, aequa coronet, Recta remuneret, anxia liberet, aethera donet, Auferat aspera duraque pondera mentes onustae, Sobria muniat, improba puniat, utraque juste. A good example of internal-rhyme is Tennyson's "Sweet and Low," and a still finer one in the following lyric from "The Princess." No title is given by the poet himself. BUGLE The splendor falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story: Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying, Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. Poe uses three-fold internal-rhyme in "The Raven:" But the silence was unbroken, and the stillness gave no token, And the only word there spoken was the whispered word "Lenore." The same device is used with good effect in Alfred Percival Graves' "Father O'Flynn:" Powerfullest preacher and tindherest teacher, And kindliest creature in old Donegal.' Too plentiful a use of double-rhyme is apt to impair the dignity of a poem, which may thus degenerate into jigtime. The stateliest measures use single-rhyme. 5. Unusual Rhyme-Schemes Unusual rhymes may sometimes be employed to add emphasis or to catch the attention. Browning delighted in fantastic rhymes. His reason may perhaps be found in this stanza: Grand, rough old Martin Luther Do roses stick like burrs? Thomas Love Peacock was one of the most dexterous of English rhymesters. The following opening stanza of one of his poems goes off like the clatter of musketry: |