feminine rhyme

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A feminine rhyme is a rhyme that matches two or more syllables, usually at the end of respective lines. Often the final syllable is unstressed.

Feminine rhyme in poetry

English

Feminine rhyme is relatively rare in English poetry and usually appears as a special effect. However, the Hudibrastic relies upon feminine rhyme for its comedy, and limericks will often employ outlandish feminine rhymes for their humor. Irish satirist Jonathan Swift wrote most of his poetry using feminine rhyme.

William Shakespeare's Sonnet number 20, uniquely among the sonnets, makes use exclusively of feminine rhymes:

J. R. R. Tolkien makes the use of internal and external triple syllable rhymes in some of the poems and songs contained within his epic novel The Lord of the Rings^[1]:

French

In French verse, a feminine rhyme is one in which the final syllable is a "silent" e, even if the word is masculine. In classical French poetry, two feminine rhymes cannot occur in succession.

Feminine rhyme in music

Hip hop

In hip hop music, especially since the 1990s, the use of feminine rhyme in rapping (often referred to by the colloquial terms "multis" or "multirhymes" — a contraction of "multisyllabic rhymes") is considered a sign of technical skill, and rap artists (such as Canibus, Big Pun, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Big L, Kool G Rap, Apathy, Pharoahe Monch, Nas, and Redman) have been known to string together large sequences of complex rhyme patterns.

Eminem made extensive use of the technique in his early work, for example, It's OK; (rhymes are marked in bold for clarity):

References

1. ^ J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

See also

• Masculine rhyme