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Do the words ‘soul’ and ‘all’ rhyme?

You might think not, but read on to find out why they do and what type of rhyme they share.

Could you be a poet even if you don’t know it? Do you think rhyme is fine?

Key learning points

Different types of rhyme and their effects, including:

• perfect rhyme
• half rhyme
• end rhyme
• internal rhyme
• masculine and feminine rhyme

When words have similar sounds, we often say they rhyme. Poetry and songs often use rhyme, because it sounds good and because the repetition of sounds can give a sense of rhythm to the words.

When poets use rhyme in regular places within their poems, this is called a rhyme scheme.

The matching sounds can be at the ends of words, for example:
The frog was agog at the size of the log

This is a very common type of rhyme and it sounds quite satisfying. The matching sounds are at the end of the words so they are more similar than they are different.

However, rhyme isn’t only used for matching sounds at the ends of words, for example:
The scent of the flower was overpowering

The rhyme in these words is in the middle, and the ends of the words are different.

There are many different types of rhyme, but there is one thing in common: rhyme is always about matching sounds.

When we speak words, we tend to emphasise certain parts of the words. For example we might say ‘letter’ with an emphasis on the ‘let’ at the start. This is called a stressed syllable.

Perfect rhyme is what we call words with matching sounds in their stressed syllables and anything that comes after that stressed syllable, like ‘let’ and ‘bet’, or ‘letter’ and ‘better’.

Sometimes, poets rhyme unstressed syllables, or a stressed syllable of one word with an unstressed syllable of another word, like ‘painting’ and ‘ring’. The rhyme here is on the ‘ing’ sound at the end of the word, but the stressed syllable is not the same. This is called half rhyme, or imperfect rhyme.

In the opening lines of Happy Birthday Moon, the poet Raymond Antrobus uses half-rhyme:

Dad reads aloud. I follow his finger across the page.
Sometimes his finger moves past words, tracing white space.

Here the words ‘page’ and ‘space’ almost rhyme – the sound ‘pay’ within the words is the same but the rest of the word does not rhyme.

End rhyme is as simple as it sounds: it’s when poets rhyme words at the ends of lines. This is the type of rhyme that is shown by a rhyme scheme. For example, this AA rhyme scheme:

Roses are red, violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet, and so are you.

However, rhymes can also happen between words that are not at the ends of lines. This type of rhyme is called internal rhyme. Here is an example from Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
     While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
       Only this and nothing more.”

If we look back at the example from Macbeth, we can see that Shakespeare also used internal rhyme as well as end rhyme:

Double double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Complete the internal rhyme

When two words end with a rhyming stressed syllable, it's called masculine rhyme. Here are some examples of masculine rhyme:

• Dog and frog
• Long and wrong
• Compare and beware
• Produce and reduce

Masculine rhymes can often sound strong and definite, because the rhyme is on the final, stressed syllable.

However, if the stressed syllable that rhymes is not the final syllable of the word and so the word ends with a rhymed unstressed syllable, it's called feminine rhyme. Here are some examples of feminine rhyme:

• Duty and beauty
• Measure and leisure
• Double and trouble
• Rumour and humour

Remember, feminine rhyme is still perfect rhyme, so everything after the rhymed stressed syllable should also rhyme. If not, this would be an example of half rhyme, or imperfect rhyme.

Rhyme in poetry can have many different effects, but some of the most common effects include:

• creating a rhythm
• emphasising the rhymed words
• connecting words and ideas

For example, if we look at a traditional nursery rhyme:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men,
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.

This uses masculine rhyme in an AABB rhyme scheme to create a simple and memorable rhythm and rhyme.

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth:
Double double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.

Here, Shakespeare has used internal and end rhyme with a feminine rhyme to create a spell-like rhythm. The rhyme connects the words ‘double’, ‘trouble’ and ‘bubble’, which suggests the witches are making a potion or a spell that will cause many problems.