Preface

rhyme is "the correspondence, in two or more words or verses, of terminal sounds beginning with an accented vowel, which, in modem English usage, must be preceded by different consonant sounds, or by a consonant in one case and none in the other." A rhyme is one of two or more words which correspond as described, and a list of rhymes is a group of such words. A rhyming dictionary, therefore, is a compendium of complete lists of rhymes, as exhaustive as it is possible to make it.

This rhyming dictionary is organized on the modern principle of giving the lists of rhymes according to the key vowel sound, and progresses from A- (ay, bay, etc.) through UZ'i-ness- (fuzziness, etc.).

The vowel sounds A, E, I, 0, and U and their variations (see table of contents) are taken up in turn. Under each, the lists of rhymes are given in three sections: single or masculine rhymes, double or feminine rhymes, and triple rhymes. In each section, one proceeds in an orderly, alphabetical fashion, as, for example, from AB- (Abe, babe, etc.) through AZ- (daze, etc.), AB'i- (Abie, baby, etc.) through AZ'ing-(hazing, etc.). Due to phonetic considerations, the letter c is always alphabetized under ^ or s, its two possible sounds. The ch sound still stands third in alphabetical order.

In each entry, the list of rhymes is given according to number of syllables, for easier reference. One-syllable words come first, of course, then two, and so on, with each group being preceded by a figure showing the number of syllables. This will facilitate finding the right rhyme when, for example, the poet has only one ac­cented syllable left to fill in to complete his line. Time will be saved and the rhyme more quickly found.

When the rhyme sound is preceded by one or more syllables, in longer words, the rhymes are arranged according to the consonant directly preceding the rhyme sound —or, in other words, alphabetized backwards. This is useful because multiple rhymes thus are listed together.

In modern poetry, very frequently a kind of offbeat rhyming is used to good effect, and it is for that reason that we have included many so-called "imperfect" rhymes. These are considered to be, for the purposes of this book, words which con­tain the rhyme sound, but in which the sound is not accented. Such imperfect rhymes are printed in italics. Another device of modern poetry is the use of con­sonance, as, for example, late, let, light, lot, lute. Such examples of consonance may be easily found simply by looking up the corresponding section under each vowel sound.

For the sake of writers of humorous and light verse, very numerous slang and colloquial expressions have been included for the first time in such a reference book. The inclusions of foreign-language expressions commonly used in English are un­usually rich, and it is hoped that they may prove useful alike to poet and verse-writer.

The thesaurus-like arrangement of this dictionary makes it easier and quicker to use than the more old-fashioned, vertical-list kind of arrangement. Another ad­vantage of this arrangement is its compactness, which makes the book far more port­able than rhyming dictionaries containing much less material. Indeed, this is the most complete and inclusive, as well as the most usable, of modem rhyming dictionaries.

It is easy to say what verse is: it is a written composition which uses a metrical pattern and frequently also the device of rhyme to heighten its effectiveness.

It is hard to say what poetry is. Real poetry, like beauty itself, is somehow beyond definition. Great poets have written it, but have not been able to define it.

This brief chapter on versification is about the tools of both poetry and verse- meter and rhyme.

Meter is the basic pattern of rhythm which repeated throughout a verse. It is a like the time, or repeated beat, of music.

Rhyme is the chiming of identical terminal sounds of words. It may occur regularly at the ends of lines, and within lines as well, as in many of the poems of Edgar Allan Poe. In English, rhyme is based on an accented vowel sound. This rhyme sound usually consists of accented vowel plus final consonant, and in that case is called a masculine, or one-syllable, rhyme. It may be composed of accented vowel (with or without consonant) followed by one or two unaccented syllables. A two-syllable rhyme is called feminine rhyme, while a three-syllable rhyme has no special name.

In rhyming, there are only two rules. The rhyme sounds must be identical. And each rhyme used must vary from all the others in the consonant-sound which precedes the rhyme. Thus, vacation and oblation are acceptable rhymes, which vacation and extrication are not, being mere repetitions of -cation instead of rhymes on -ation.

One out of every two or three syllables is ordinarily accented in English. In prose, the accent is allowed to fall at random, but in verse the writer arranges his language so that the accent comes at regular intervals, ant the thought breaks naturally into regular lines.

As far back as we know, rhythm has been employed to make things catchy and easy to remember. Rhyme seems to have come into use a little later, but served the same purpose. The early sagas and tales of the minstrels were carried by word of mouth, and employed these devices. In the history of the world’s literature, poetry came long before prose.

There are four kinds of meter in English. These are used straight, or mixed, as the occasion and the verse demands.

One unit of meter is called a foot, or a metric foot.

1. Iambic meter, composed of units of two syllables with the accent on the second. One iambic foot is called an iamb. (Pronounced eye-am’-bik, eye’-amb)

Example: “The sea | is calm| tonight.|
The tide | is full, | the moon | lies fair |”  ―Matthew Arnold

2. Trochaic meter, composed of units of two syllables with the accent on the first. One trochaic foot is called a trochee. (Pronounced tro-kay’-ik, tro’-kee)

Example: “On the | shores of | Gitche | Gumee |
Of the | shining | Big Sea | Water, |” ― Longfellow

3. Anapestic meter, composed of units of three syllables with the accent on the third. One anapestic foot is called an anapest. (Pronounced an-a-pest’-ik, an’-a-pest)

Example: “The Assyr|ian came down | like the wolf | on the fold |” ― Byron

4. Dactylic meter, composed of units of three syllables with the accent on the first. One dactylic foot is called a dactyl. (Pronounced dak-till’-ik, dak’-ill)

Example: “This is the | forest prim |eval. The | murmuring | pines and the | hemlocks
Bearded with | moss and in | garments of green, indis|tinct in the | twilight” ― Longfellow

A convenient way to remember the kinds of meter is to memorize a little rhyme such as:

Example: “The iamb saunters through my book,
 Trochees rush and tumble;
While the anapest runs like a hurrying brook,
 Dactyls are stately and classical

Iambic feet are firm and flat

And come down heavily like THAT

Trochees dancing very lightly

Sparkle, froth and bubble brightly

Dactylic daintiness lilting so prettily

Moves about fluttering rather than wittily

While for speed and for haste such a rhythm is the best

As we find in the race of the quick anapest.

Bigfoot Spondee thrums down,

Stone slab, dead weight, lead down.

There came an old Amphibrach tripping

And fell in a basin of dripping

 In addition, one more kind of meter must be noted ― Spondaic meter, composed of units of two syllables, both being accented. One spondaic foot called a spondee. (Pronounced spon-day’-ik, spon’-dee)

Example: “Stop’ thief’ |”

Spondaic meter is not, properly speaking, an English meter at all, as it is impossible in English to sustain for long a meter in which every syllable is accented. However, it may occasionally be substituted for a foot in some other meter, when the effect would be heightened by it.

Scansion or scanning of verse is the analysis of its meter, and is accomplished by marking each syllable according to whether it is accented or not. Then a mark is placed between each metric foot, and it may be determined what meter predominates. When a line is out of time with the rest, it is frequently said that “it does not scan.”

Note:

   Amphibrach (unstressed-stressed-unstressed)

   Amphimacer or Cretic (stressed-unstressed-stressed)

   Phyrric (two unstressed)

    Hypermetrical - Having one or more syllables in addition to those found in a standard metrical unit or line of verse.

    Catalectic - Lacking one or more syllables, especially in the final foot. Used of verse.

In addition to the kind of meter of a poem, such as iambic, it is further described according to the number of metric feet (or accents) in each line. For example, a sonnet is written in an iambic pentameter, which means in five-foot iambic lines. The kinds of lines are as follows.

Iambic pentameter is said to be the most natural English line, and it is used in most long narrative, epic, or dramatic poems in English.

Hexameters are the lines of classical poetry in Greek and Latin, as well as French and certain other modern languages. In English, the hexameter is often called an Alexandrine, and is sometimes used to give great weight to a poem which mainly in pentameters. Alexandrines occur in certain stanza forms, such as the Spenserian stanza.

The length of the line, in verse, generally follows a pattern. Either all are the same, of else the varying lengths in a regular fashion. Beginning verse-writers would do well to check their poems from this point of view. For example, if a poem is written in four-line stanzas, with the lines alternating between three and four feet, it is not a good idea suddenly to insert a line of five feet somewhere, nor should one substitute a four-foot line for a three-foot line pattern.

A stanza is a division within a poem, and is composed of a group of lines, sometimes only one line; it is set off by space between it and the next stanza.

A poem may be written in set stanzas that follow a regular pattern, or the poet pay divide his stanzas according to the thought content, in which case the stanza division is entirely analogous to paragraphing in prose. These two different ways of handling the stanza may be called formal stanzas and free stanzas.

Stanzas are names according to the number of lines they contain.

Beyond these, one refers simply to a nine-line stanza, and so on. The length of the lines in a stanza, and the rhyme scheme, if any, are matter of choice for the poet. Infinite variety is possible, but there are number of fixed stanza forms which have qualities of charm and malleability, which the beginning poet would do well to practice.

The quatrain is probably the most widely used stanza form, and may be rhymed in a number of ways. The loose ballad quatrain, with the first and third lines, and second and fourth lines rhyming, or with only the second and fourth lines rhymed, is a universal favorite. The lines may be of any length, but alternating four- and three-foot lines are perhaps be the most used.

To indicate a rhyme scheme, one marks the first rhyme with the letter a, the second b, and so on. For example:

―Gelett Burgess

Thus, the rhyme scheme of the above quatrain is a-b-a-b.

A combination of triples which can be very effective is called terza rima; it was originally an Italian form. This is composed of three-line stanzas with interlocking rhyme, ending with a couplet. It goes a-b-a, b-c-b, c-d-c, d-d―or it may go on much longer before the concluding couplet. Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind” is written in this form.

Another famous Italian stanza is the ottava rima. It contains eight lines and three rhymes, as, follows:
a-b-a-b-b-c-b-c-c.

The sonnet is the best-known and most widely practiced of all the fixed forms of poetry. It consists of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter, and has one of several rhyme schemes and thought divisions.

The Italian, or Petrarchan, sonnet, so called because it was first used Petrarch, is the oldest of the sonnet forms. It is composed of an octave and a sestet, and it may be said in general that the octave states the case, while the sestet resolves it or in some way presents the main point which the poet has in mind. The rhyme scheme of this kind of poem is: a-b-b-a, a-b-b-a, c-d-e, c-d-e. Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote many beautiful sonnets in this form. Throughout English and American literature one finds it used, although the Shakespearean sonnet has been on the whole more popular. Here is a good example:

                    MILTON

―Henry Wordsworth Longfellow

There have been many variations on the Italian sonnet. Sometimes the break between the octave and the sestet does not mark any break in the thought. The break may come elsewhere, even in the middle of a line. The rhyme scheme may be varied. One may have a-b-b-a, c-d-d-c; a-b-b-a, a-c-c-a; or a-b-b-a, c-b-b-c, in the octave. The sestet may also be varied in many ways. Here is example.

              EVENING ON THE BEACH

William Wordsworth

The Shakespearean sonnet has probably been the most popular of all the fixed forms in English poetry. Like other sonnets, it has fourteen lines written in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme and divisions of thought are different from those of the Italian sonnet. It is composed of three quatrains and final couplet, and the rhyme scheme goes: a-b-a-b, c-d-c-d, e-f-e-f, g-g.

As is readily seen, the rhyme scheme is easier to use because there are only two rhymes on each terminal sound throughout. They may be indented according to the rhyme scheme, or not indented at all. Here is one of Shakespeare’s sonnets:

                  SONNET 29

― William Shakespeare

This is an eight-line poem, in which the first line repeated as the fourth line, and the first and second lines repeated as the seventh and eighth. These lines should identical in sound, if not in meaning―that is, they may contain puns and various plays on words, if desired. However, a triloet in which the lines are repeated as a simple refrain can be very charming. The rhyme scheme―with (R) following the indication of lines which are repeated―is as follows: a-b-a-a(R)-a-b-a(R)-b(R). An example of a triolet which is not quite regular follows:

ROSE FEVER

Go, lovely rose!

I think you’ll drive me mad.

Kerchoo! the mischief grows-

Blow, lovely nose!

I’ve nothing now but woes,

And all the joys I had

Go, ―Lovely rose,

I think you’ll drive me mad.

The rondel contains fourteen lines and two rhymes. The first and second lines form the refrain, and are repeated as the seventh and eighth, and thirteenth and fourteenth.
The rhyme scheme is a-b-b-a, a-b-a(R)-b(R),a-b-b-a-a(R)-b(R).

A rondel of thirteen lines omits one of the last two lines, and goes exactly as above except for that omission.

The rondelet, or little rondel, has seven lines, of which the first, third and seventh are the refrain, in iambic dimeter, while the other four lines are in iambic trimeter or tetrameter.
The rhyme scheme is a-b-a(R)-a-b-b-a(R)

The rondeau contains fifteen lines in iambic tetrameter or pentameter. The fourth and the fifteenth lines are the refrain, and are composed of the first part of the first line; this refrain does not rhyme. The rhyme scheme follows: a-a-b-b-a, a-a-b-R, a-a-b-b-a-R.

          IN AFTER DAYS

-Austin Dobson

The villanelle is a poem in three-line stanzas in which the same two rhyme sounds are used throughout. The first and third lines of the first stanza serve as refrains, returning in alternation as the last line of each following stanza. The last stanza is a quatrain and end with both refrain lines. The most usual length of the villanelle is six stanzas, but it may be longer or shorter if the poet so desires.
The rhyme scheme is: a-b-a, a-b-a(1), a-b-a(3), etc., a-b-a(1)-a(3).

The ballade is a lyric poem containing three stanzas and an Envoy, or fourth stanza, usually half the length of the others.

There are two main forms of the ballade, that using an eight-line stanza and four-line envoy, and that using a ten-line stanza and five-line envoy.

The last line of every stanza and of the envoy is a refrain.

The eight-line ballade, strictly speaking, should be written in iambic tetrameters, while the ten-line form should be written in iambic pentameter. However, these rules are not now observed so strictly in the original French ballades of several centuries ago.

The rhyme scheme of the eight-line stanza ballade is as follows: a-b-a-b-b-c-b-c(R) for three stanzas, then b-c-b-c(R) for the envoy.

The ten-line stanza ballade goes: a-b-a-b-b-c-c-d-c-d(R) for three stanzas, then c-c-d-c-d(R) for the envoy.

A seven-line stanza was used by Chaucer, as follows:

           BALLADE OF GOOD COUNSEL

               by Geoffrey Chaucer

(modern version by Henry van Dyke)

The limerick is a light-verse form containing five lines, the first, second and fifth lines having three metric feet, and the third and fourth lines two metric feet. It is rhymed a-a-b-b-a, and as written by many famed practitioners the last line is a repetition or partial repetition of the first. It is usually written in mixed iambs and anapests.

The subject of a limerick frequently a person, but it may be anything in the wide world, or out of it. A few examples follow.

There once was a man from Nantucket

Who kept all his cash in a bucket;

But his daughter, named Nan,

Ran away with a man,

And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

-Anonymous

An epicure, dining at Crewe

Found quite a large mouse in his stew.

Said the waite, “Don’t shout

And wave it about,

Or the rest will be wanting one, too!”

-Anonymous

The expression that head this paragraph often seem to cause confusion, and yet they are not really so difficult. Verse applies to any of the forms which have been described thus far. In fact, it may apply to anything which written with the line-separations common to poetry. Blank verse is metrical verse which is unrhymed. Free verse is verse which separated into lines, but has not any definable meter. It is usually cadenced, or rhythmical in a loose way. It is called “free” because it does not have any identifiable rules.

Poetry and verse, like heaven, have many mansions.

There are certainly as many kinds of poetry as there are of prose, and probably more. Thus far, we have only considered the tools of writing verse, but before we close, it will be a good idea to mention briefly some of the kind of verse which have been written in the past.

1.   Epic poetry is storytelling on a vast and majestic scale. It tells not just the story of one person, but of nations and wars and great cataclysms, in which the supernatural often plays a part.

2.   Narrative poetry, such as “Hiawatha” or “Evangeline,” tells a long story, but is on a smaller scale than an epic. It has been very popular in the past. In recent years long narrative poems, novels in verse, have continued to appear, but have not found great popular favor.

3.   The ballad. This is short, lyrical storytelling, as old as time, and just as universal. The earliest known ballads are folk ballads, whose authors are unknown, such as “Sir Patrick Spens.” “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” by Coleridge, the “Ballad of Reading Gaol,” by Oscar Wilde, the “Ballad of William Sycamore,” by Stephen Vincent Benét, are some examples of ballads that might be read again by the student of verse-writing.

This is so-called didactic or religious verse and may take the form of long philosophizing. On the other hand, some beautiful lyrics may fall in this category.

This is called descriptive poetry, and has its primary aim the painting of a picture. It may be quite long, or it may be in lyric form, but it usually strives to be objective.

This is called dramatic poetry. It is found in Shakespeare’s plays and in Browning’s dramatic monologues, to name but a few examples.

This is usually lyric poetry and comprises the greatest variety imaginable. There are many forms of lyric poetry―odes, or poems in praise of something or somebody; elegies, or poems lamenting the loss of something or somebody; epigrams, epitaphs, lullabies, or just plain lyric, or songs.

This kind of verse usually expresses feelings, too, but in such a light way that it deserves a separate category. Its object is to amuse the reader.

This may be either light or serious, and is written to suit some special occasion. It runs the gamut from Kipling’s famous “Recessional” to greeting-card verse.

As usual when one talks about poetry, one has the cage without the bird. Yet one must start somewhere, if one wishes to write poetry or verse, and where else but in a discussion of technique can one learn how to go about it?

Aside from the special rules of writing verse, all the general precepts of good writing in general apply to the writing of poetry. Freshness of expression and of viewpoint is usually rewarded with success; cliché and worn-out, second-hand ideas with failure.

Above all, Socrates’ old advice to “know thyself” applies to poets. “Fool, said my muse to me, look in they heart and write!” remains as good advice as when Sir Philip Sydney wrote it.

Meters

Lines, According to Number of Metric Feet

Stanzas

Fixed Forms*

*Note: This chart is not exhaustive, while these are the main fixed forms, others exist, as well as variations of the ones given.