Poetry Poem - Where should you put your 'Rhyme and Rhythm poems/poetry' on hubpages - Rhyme and Rhythm defined

Following on from my hub ‘Where to put your poetry’ I was asked how Rhyme and Rhythm fit in to the whole thing. I felt that Rhyme & Rhythm covered an area of significant importance, as some poets like to write using rhyme and rhythm but also it was a large enough area to consider writing a hub about it.

In this hub I am going to try to define Rhyme & Rhythm and some of the terms associated with Rhyme & Rhythm without too much hickory pokery and unnecessary technical language. This will hopefully encourage you to consider carefully where your poetry should be put in relation to the available categories within Hubpages.

The basic definition of rhyme is two words that sound alike. The vowel sound of two words is the same, but the initial consonant sound is different. Rhyme helps to unify a poem; it also repeats a sound that links one concept to another, helping to determine the structure of a poem. When two subsequent lines rhyme, it is likely that they are thematically linked, or that the next set of rhymed lines signifies a slight departure.

Rhythm is significant in poetry because poetry is so emotionally charged and intense. Rhythm can be measured in terms of heavily stressed to less stressed syllables. Rhythm is measured in feet, units usually consisting of one heavily accented syllable and one or more lightly accented syllable. Rhythm is a musical quality produced by the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables. Rhythm occurs in all forms of language, both written and spoken, but is particularly important in poetry. The most obvious kind of rhythm is the regular repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables found in some poetry. Writers create rhythm by repeating words and phrases or even by repeating whole lines and sentences.

Alliteration (or head rhyme): matching initial consonants

Assonance: matching vowels. Assonance is sometimes used to refer to slant rhymes

Consonance: matching consonants

Eye rhymes or sight rhymes: similarity in spelling but not in sound

Feminine rhymes: words of more than one syllable where the stressed (or rhyming) syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable e.g. 'nearly' and 'clearly' or 'meeting' and 'greeting'. It is also possible to have triple feminine rhymes where the stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed syllables - as in 'liable' and 'friable'. Feminine rhymes tend to be used in front stressed meters such as trochaic.

Forced or clumsy rhyme: key ingredient of doggerel

Half rhyme (or sprung rhyme): matching final consonants

Iambic: beat pattern

Identical Rhyme: repeats exactly the same word to create a rhyme.

Imperfect: a rhyme between a stressed and an unstressed syllable

Internal rhyme: rhyme that occurs within a single line of verse, a word in the middle of a line of poetry rhymes with the word at the end of the line

Masculine or single rhymes: the last syllable in a word rhymes with the last syllable in another word. This can occur where the words are single syllable words such as 'bat' and 'cat' or where the words have more than one syllable but where the final syllable of each word is stressed e.g. 'instead' and 'mislead'. Masculine rhymes are usually associated with end-stressed meters such as iambic.

Mind Rhyme: substitution rhyme similar to rhyming slang that is “heard” only when generated by a specific verse context

Oblique (or slant/forced): a rhyme with an imperfect match in sound

Pararhyme: a form of 'near rhyme' where the consonants in two different words are exactly the same but the vowels vary

Pentameter: length of line - five feet or ten syllables, long

Perfect rhyme: the last stressed vowel and all following sounds are identical in both words

Punning rhymes: identical rhymes

Random Rhyme: Irregular, sporadic rhyme - often used in modern poetry

Rhyme: The effect produced when similar vowel sounds chime together and where the final consonant sound is also in agreement e.g. 'log' and 'dog'.

Rhyme Royal: A poem consisting of seven line stanzas, usually in iambic pentameters, and rhymed a-b-a-b-b-c-c

Rhyme scheme: is the pattern established by the arrangement of rhymes in a stanza or poem, generally described by using letters of the alphabet to denote the recurrence of rhyming lines, such as the ababbcc of the Rhyme Royal stanza form

Rhyming Slang: invented by 'Cockney geezers' to conceal the subject of conversations from eavesdroppers and/or the police

Rhythm (or "measure"): like the beat in music. In poetry, rhythm implies that certain words are produced more force- fully than others, and may be held for longer duration

Rhythmic effect: The repetition of a pattern

Running Rhythm: the effect of meters featuring regular patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables

Semirhyme: a rhyme with an extra syllable on one word

Spelling Rhyme: the end words of a line are spelled similarly e.g. 'love' and 'move' but don't chime together as rhymes

Sprung Rhythm: A unique system of meter. One stressed syllable can make up a foot

Super-rhyme (ore than perfect rhyme): the vowels and the onsets of the rhyming syllables are identical

Syllabic: a rhyme in which the last syllable of each word sounds the same but does not necessarily contain vowels

Tail rhyme (also called end rhyme): a rhyme in the final syllable(s) of a verse

It is my belief that most poems that rhyme and have rhythm could be classed as lyrical – because they have that musical feel. So probably the best place to put your rhymes would be in the lyrical poetry category.

Also, if I have missed anything or you think that something I have written is incorrect, please let me know and I will look into it.

I hope this is of some help as to which category your should choose for your poetry.

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All comments appreciated.