Rhyme and Sound Patterns

A syllable consists of a vowel that may be preceded or followed by consonants (C V C). The most common types of parallelism are therefore:

• rhyme, which is a phonemic parallelism between 2 stressed syllables (good and wood)
• alliteration, when the initial consonants are the same (fish or fowl)
• consonance, when the final consonants are the same (odds and ends)
• assonance, when the vowel sounds are the same (free and easy)

By creating echoes between two words, these parallelisms have musical effects, while at the same time underlining relationships (counterpoint, contrast, parllelism) between different words and different lines, thus bringing cohesion to the poem.

1. True Rhyme is the most common type of rhyme in English verse. It is the final sequence vowel +consonant which is the same in the two syllables (tries / eyes flight / light)
2. Half-rhyme: only the end consonant is repeated. It is an instance of mere consonance (rot / put rose / buzz)
3. slant-rhyme or apophony: only the consonants are repeated, but this time both the initial and final consonants (trod / tried jet / lit)
4. backward rhyme is used to describe a rhyme in which the order of the first word in inverted in the second one (tip / pit)
5. apocopated rhyme describes two words whose stressed syllables rhyme, but one of the words has a feminine ending (cart / parted)
6. reverse rhyme: the initial consonant and the vowel are repeated (lead / leap)
7. assonance: only the vocalic sound is repeated (beat / feel)
8. alliteration: only the initial consonant is repeated (welling water)