ABSTRACT
Rhyme and metre have a long history and continue to be used by contemporary poets in both traditional and non-traditional ways. Learning about rhyme and metre is especially relevant to understanding how poetic forms like the sonnet work. Rhyme is a technique most of us are familiar with, from children’s books and nursery rhymes to advertising jingles, greeting cards, and rap and song lyrics. Herbert’s rhymewell shows how paying attention to the individual consonant and vowel sounds in words matters when finding half rhymes. Alliteration is when words that begin with the same sound appear in close proximity. Poets have always permitted themselves flexibility when writing in iambic pentameter.
