Effective rhythm

CHAPTER ONE

Rhyme is a connection between the sounds of syllables, not words. Only the ls syllables rhyme in at underwear repair The other syllables, under re do not figure in at all. When two syllables rhyme, it means three things:

1. The syllables' vowel sounds are the same
wear

cast
Even though these syllables' vowels have different letters, they make the same sound in these words.Only your ears count, not your eyes.

2. The sounds after the vowels (if any) are the same,
ear
air

(As you can see by the "ea" in "wear" and "ear," sometimes the same letters sound different in different contexts.) "(If any)" is important because syllables don't always have consonants after their vowel sounds, as in

disagree referee.

3. The sounds before the vowels are different.This third characteristicis important. It shows that rhyme works by the basic musical principle of tension /resolution: difference moving into sameness. When you hear a rhyme, wear pair
gree

ree

your ear notices that, in spite of the difference at the beginnings of the syllables, they end up sounding alike! Beginnings of rhymed syllables have to be different so your ear will notice thesimilar sounds at the end. otherwise, your ear will pick up only repetition, not rhyme. When you hear a cheerleader yell go! go! go! go! go!

Rhyme Is Your Friend you pay attention to the repetition, not to the sounds of the syllables. No one in the stadium t i k "Hey! Those syllables sound the same!" hns When the beginnings of syllables are the same, the syllables cannot rhyme. This is called anIDENTITY: fuse confuse It is not a rhyme. Your ear does not pay attention to the sounds of the syllables. There is no tension, no "difference" to be resolved by sameness. peace piece lease police

These words do not call attention to their sounds either, because their syllables do not resolve difference into sameness. The same sounds are repeated, just like a cheerleader's yell. But try peacelease piece police

These are a big difference from the Identities above them. There is also a big difference between these two lists:
1. birthplace, commonplace, misplace, place, rephce 2. ace, brace, chase, erase, face, disgrace, resting place

Say them aloud. Your ear does not focus on the sounds in the first list, but is drawn like a magnet to the sounds in the second list. In the firstlist you hear simple repetition. In the second list you hear the sound of music -or, rather, of tension /resolution. Look at the three conditions again.

1. The syllables' vowel sounds are the same 2. The sounds after the vowels (if any) are the same, 3. The sounds before the vowels are different. When syllables meet all three of these conditions, call it PERFECT RHYME. Later I will show you otherkinds of rhyme besides PERFECT RHYME.

Most rhymes, including PERFECT RHYMES,belong to one of two categories. Never to both. Every rhyme is either MASCULINE or FEMININE.(We will conveniently ignore three-syllable rhymes, at least for now.) Here are some MASCULINE RHYMES: command land understand
expand strand

Here are some FEMININE RHYMES: commanding

landing
understanding expandingstranding

Rhyme Is Your Friend

7

As you can see, the difference is in the way they end. MASCULINE RHYMES are either one-syllable words, or words that end on a stressed syllable

command land / understand / expand / strand

/

FEMININE RHYMES always end on an unstressed syllable. They are always two-syllable rhymes. (Masculine rhymes are one-syllable rhymes.)
commanding landing /understanding expanding / stranding Look at the stressed syllables in the FEMININE RHYMES above and you will see that they are
/

all PERFECT RHYMES:
mand land / stand
/

ing ing
ing

pand ing strand ing

Stressed syllables, whether in FEMININE RHYMES or MASCULINE RHYMES, create rhyme's tension and resolution. The unstressed ending syllables above are all IDENTITIES, which is normal for...