Jan's Master Class--SLANT RHYME
Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2009 8:29 pm
A slant rhyme is a pair of words that almost (but not quite) rhyme. Unlike a perfect rhyme (girl/curl—turkey/jerky—creation/relation), a slant rhyme may have 1) a slightly different vowel sound (feature/nature), or 2) more common in modern American poetry, a slightly different ending sound (junk/defunct—year/piers).
The American poet Emily Dickinson used the first type of slant rhyme in many of her poems. Here’s a short example:
The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth,--
The sweeping up the heart,
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity.
Notice the paired words death/earth and away/eternity? They don’t quite rhyme, but in the hands of a gifted poet, they absolutely work.
The other day when I was driving to work, I heard the song “Hold Fast” by Mercy Me on the radio, and I noticed slant rhyme of the second type in the opening lyrics:
To everyone who's hurting
To those who've had enough
To all the undeserving
That should cover all of us
Please do not let go
I promise there is hope
Notice the “a” rhymes: hurting/deserving. A perfect rhyme for hurting would be something like blurting, flirting, skirting, squirting, converting…but none of those fit with the meaning the lyricist wanted in line 3. He didn’t make the mistake that many beginning poets make—the idea that every rhyme in end-rhymed poetry must be a perfect rhyme. Instead, he opted for undeserving—and the result is a beautifully unforced lyric that says exactly what he wants it to say. The search for the perfect rhyme should never drive your poetry; the meaning of the poem should be foremost.
The ear hears close rhymes like this as true rhymes, anyway—especially I think, in music, but also in any traditional, rhymed form. When the vowels match, and the consonants are close, it’s slant rhyme, and it’s good enough. It’s far better, in fact, than a forced or unnatural rhyme:
To everyone who's hurting
To those who've had enough
To girls who’ve been caught flirting…
In the same Mercy Me lyric, the “b” rhymes and the “c” rhymes are also slant rhymes: enough/us share the “schwa” vowel sound (look it up!) and go/hope share a long “o” sound. In both of those instances, the ear hears the rhyme.
I’ve mentioned this before (maybe in the “rhyme” class) but one particularly common way of forcing a rhyme in order to make it perfect, when a slant rhyme would be just fine, is by using a form of the helping verb “do”. Like this:
Avoiding my savior, I’d dithered all day
So down on my knees at my bed I did pray.
That’s just horrible poetry on so many levels (I can say that, because I wrote it…). The first line’s not entirely horrid. But that second line! It’s got an odd, inverted grammar, almost painfully contrived, just so that I can get to the exact rhyme of pray at the end of the line.
But…what if that last word could be prayed? Hmmmmm…..
Homework: Fix the bad couplet! I know I haven’t given you much to work with, but use the first line of my couplet, and end with a slant rhyme—either prayed or some other word that almost, but not quite, rhymes with day. If you wish, you can use that first line as part of a longer poem—a quatrain, maybe.
OR link to a poem of yours in which you used slant rhyme.
OR discuss slant rhyme—do you try to use perfect rhymes always? If so, how do you avoid forcing your rhymes? Can you think of other reasons (beside the forcing issue) why a poet might use a slant rhyme?
Next week’s class may be a day or so late; I’ll be in Florida celebrating my daughter’s birthday, and not flying back until Monday. If I get a chance to write it during the week, I’ll take it along on my travel drive and post it from there.
Next week: Slice of life
The American poet Emily Dickinson used the first type of slant rhyme in many of her poems. Here’s a short example:
The bustle in a house
The morning after death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted upon earth,--
The sweeping up the heart,
And putting love away
We shall not want to use again
Until eternity.
Notice the paired words death/earth and away/eternity? They don’t quite rhyme, but in the hands of a gifted poet, they absolutely work.
The other day when I was driving to work, I heard the song “Hold Fast” by Mercy Me on the radio, and I noticed slant rhyme of the second type in the opening lyrics:
To everyone who's hurting
To those who've had enough
To all the undeserving
That should cover all of us
Please do not let go
I promise there is hope
Notice the “a” rhymes: hurting/deserving. A perfect rhyme for hurting would be something like blurting, flirting, skirting, squirting, converting…but none of those fit with the meaning the lyricist wanted in line 3. He didn’t make the mistake that many beginning poets make—the idea that every rhyme in end-rhymed poetry must be a perfect rhyme. Instead, he opted for undeserving—and the result is a beautifully unforced lyric that says exactly what he wants it to say. The search for the perfect rhyme should never drive your poetry; the meaning of the poem should be foremost.
The ear hears close rhymes like this as true rhymes, anyway—especially I think, in music, but also in any traditional, rhymed form. When the vowels match, and the consonants are close, it’s slant rhyme, and it’s good enough. It’s far better, in fact, than a forced or unnatural rhyme:
To everyone who's hurting
To those who've had enough
To girls who’ve been caught flirting…
In the same Mercy Me lyric, the “b” rhymes and the “c” rhymes are also slant rhymes: enough/us share the “schwa” vowel sound (look it up!) and go/hope share a long “o” sound. In both of those instances, the ear hears the rhyme.
I’ve mentioned this before (maybe in the “rhyme” class) but one particularly common way of forcing a rhyme in order to make it perfect, when a slant rhyme would be just fine, is by using a form of the helping verb “do”. Like this:
Avoiding my savior, I’d dithered all day
So down on my knees at my bed I did pray.
That’s just horrible poetry on so many levels (I can say that, because I wrote it…). The first line’s not entirely horrid. But that second line! It’s got an odd, inverted grammar, almost painfully contrived, just so that I can get to the exact rhyme of pray at the end of the line.
But…what if that last word could be prayed? Hmmmmm…..
Homework: Fix the bad couplet! I know I haven’t given you much to work with, but use the first line of my couplet, and end with a slant rhyme—either prayed or some other word that almost, but not quite, rhymes with day. If you wish, you can use that first line as part of a longer poem—a quatrain, maybe.
OR link to a poem of yours in which you used slant rhyme.
OR discuss slant rhyme—do you try to use perfect rhymes always? If so, how do you avoid forcing your rhymes? Can you think of other reasons (beside the forcing issue) why a poet might use a slant rhyme?
Next week’s class may be a day or so late; I’ll be in Florida celebrating my daughter’s birthday, and not flying back until Monday. If I get a chance to write it during the week, I’ll take it along on my travel drive and post it from there.
Next week: Slice of life