ABSTRACT
The articulatory-acoustic relation between stressed syllables that begin with different sounds and end with the same sound, normally from the last stressed vowel to the end of the syllable. ‘Perfect’ rhyme occurs when syllables are equally stressed, begin with a readily discernible difference, and end identically. The initial difference may be between two consonants (eg, call/ pall, FQ I iv 16) or between a syllable that begins with a vowel and one that begins with a consonant (eg, all/call, VI ii 35). A perfect rhyme at the end of a verse line is called single or masculine; if rhyme syllables are followed by the same undifferentiated syllable (eg, faces/places, SC, June 30, 32), the rhyme is said to be double or feminine. This series continues indefinitely to triple, quadruple, quintuple, and so forth, for example, dedicate/medicate, dedicated/medicated, dedicatedly/medicatedly. Most of Spenser’s rhymes are perfect and single. A rare, special type of double or other multiple rhyme involves the so-called mosaic or heteromerous effect of one word rhyming with two or more (eg, encreased/cease it, SC, March 99, 102).
