Definitions of Poetry Terms
END RHYME: Rhyme in which the last word at the end of each verse is the word that rhymes.
This contrasts with internal rhyme, in which a word in the middle of each line of verse rhymes,
or so-called head rhyme, in which the beginning consonant in a word alliterates with another
beginning consonant in a different word.
EXACT RHYME: Exact rhyme or perfect rhyme is rhyming two words in which both the
consonant sounds and vowel sounds match to create a rhyme. The term "exact" is sometimes
used more specifically to refer to two homophones that are spelled dissimilarly but pronounced
identically at the end of lines. Since poetry is traditionally spoken aloud, the effect of rhyme
depends upon sound rather than spelling, even words that are spelled dissimilarly can rhyme.
Examples of this sort of exact rhyme include the words pain/pane, time/thyme, rein/reign, and
bough/bow. However, it is equally common to use the term exact rhyme in reference to any close
rhyme such as line/mine, dig/pig, and so on. Contrast exact rhyme with eye rhymes, and inexact
rhymes or imperfect rhymes. The last two of these three contrasting terms include subtypes
such as half rhyme, near rhyme, or slant rhyme. Exact rhyme is also referred to as perfect
rhyme, full rhyme, or true rhyme.
SLANT RHYME (also called inexact rhyme): Rhymes created out of words with similar but not
identical sounds. In most of these instances, either the vowel segments are different while the
consonants are identical, or vice versa. This type of rhyme is also called approximate rhyme,
inexact rhyme, near rhyme, half rhyme, off rhyme, analyzed rhyme, or suspended rhyme.
The example below comes from William Butler Yeats:
Heart-smitten with emotion I sink down
My heart recovering with covered eyes;
Wherever I had looked I had looked upon
My permanent or impermanent images.
Slant rhyme has also been used for splendid intentional effect in poems such as Philip Larkins'
"Toads" and "Toads Revisited," and has been increasingly popular with postmodern British poets
after World War II. Contrast with eye-rhyme and exact rhyme.
INEXACT RHYME: Rhymes created out of words with similar but not identical sounds. In
most of these instances, either the vowel segments are different while the consonants are
identical, or vice versa. This type of rhyme is also called approximate rhyme, pararhyme,
slant rhyme, near rhyme, half rhyme, off rhyme, analyzed rhyme, or suspended rhyme. The
example below comes from William Butler Yeats:
Heart-smitten with emotion I sink down
My heart recovering with covered eyes;
Wherever I had looked I had looked upon
My permanent or impermanent images.
INTERNAL RHYME: A poetic device in which a word in the middle of a line rhymes with a
word at the end of the same metrical line. Internal rhyme appears in the first and third lines in
this excerpt from Shelley's "The Cloud":
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,
And out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,
I arise and unbuild it again.
In the excerpt above, the word laugh is an internal rhyme with cenotaph, and the word womb is
an internal rhyme with tomb. Other examples include the Mother Goose rhyme, "Mary, Mary,
quite contrary," or Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, ("We were the first that ever burst / Into that
silent sea"). Contrast with interlaced rhyme, above.
MOOD (from Anglo-Saxon, mod "heart" or "spirit"): (1) In literature, a feeling, emotional state,
or disposition of mind--especially the predominating atmosphere or tone of a literary work. Most
pieces of literature have a prevailing mood, but shifts in this prevailing mood may function as a
counterpoint, provide comic relief, or echo the changing events in the plot. The term mood is
often used synonymously with atmosphere and ambiance. Students and critics who wish to
discuss mood in their essays should be able to point to specific diction, description, setting, and
characterization to illustrate what sets the mood. (2) In grammar, an aspect of verbs. Click here
for more information on grammatical mood.
RHYME rhyme is a matching similarity of sounds in two or more words, especially when their accented
vowels and all succeeding consonants are identical. For instance, the word-pairs listed here are all
rhymes: skating/dating, emotion/demotion, fascinate/deracinate, and plain/stain. Rhyming is frequently
more than mere decoration in poetry. It helps to establish stanzaic form by marking the ends of lines, it
is an aid in memorization when performing oral formulaic literature, and it contributes to the sense of
unity in a poem. The best rhymes delight because of the human fascination with varying patterned
repetition, but a successful and unexpected rhyme can also surprise the reader (which is especially
important in comic verse). They may also serve as a rhythmical device for intensifying meaning. Several
different types of rhyme and rhyme schemes exist: see also cliché rhymes, crossed rhyme, double
rhyme, end rhyme, exact rhyme, eye rhyme, feminine ending, half rhyme, head rhyme, imperfect
rhyme, inexact rhyme,
RHYTHM (from Greek, "flowing"): The varying speed, loudness, pitch, elevation, intensity, and
expressiveness of speech, especially poetry
TONE: The means of creating a relationship or conveying an attitude or mood. By looking carefully at the
choices an author makes (in characters, incidents, setting; in the work's stylistic choices and diction,
etc.), careful readers often can isolate the tone of a work and sometimes infer from it the underlying
attitudes that control and color the story or poem as a whole. The tone might be formal or informal,
playful, ironic, optimistic, pessimistic, or sensual.