The Enigma of Rhyme and Metre - Suzette Richards's Blog

It is said that rhyme and metre are used in poetry to lend rhythm to a piece; hence, in order to fully appreciate a poem, one needs to read it out loud. However, the poet cannot always predict with certainty how the reader would perceive the work. Factors such as past experiences, preconceptions (relating to statements/words), geographical influences, dialect (even within boundaries of a given country), and the meaning of words that differ from country to country, eg a generally inoffensive word might in fact turn out to have a sexually explicit meaning in America. These factors could play a role in the success or failure of a poem. This could hold true for both the poet and the reader.

Words that rhyme in one accent or dialect may not rhyme in another. A commonplace example of this is the word of, which when stressed had no rhymes in British Received Pronunciation prior to the 19th century, but which rhymed with grave and mauve in some varieties of General American. In the other direction, iron has no rhyme in General American, but many in RP. Words may also have more than one pronunciation, one with a rhyme, and one without, eg sloth (it rhymes with both, depending on your pronunciation). Another example where pronunciation plays a vital role (stressed syllables are in caps):

                Volcanoes is pronounced vahl-KAY-nohz

                Canoes is pronounced kuh-NOOZ

One reason for the difference in pronunciation despite similar spelling is ‘volcano’ comes from Latin and ‘canoe’ is from Arawakan. (The Arawak are a group of Indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean.)

One can clearly see in the above example that those two words would not be a perfect rhyme and will have a bearing on the metre. As a result of these anomalies, I am not a proponent of rhyme and metre and askew it in most of my poetry contests.

I am enjoying tremendously the entries received thus far for my MOTHER SAID contest, but do remember: NO rhyme may be used; only the refractory rhymes listed on the contest page. Thank you.

Happy quills!

Suzette