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A rhyme or rime is the association of words with similar sounds, a technique most often used in poetry. (Indeed, "a rhyme" is sometimes used to refer to a rhyming couplet or short verse; see nursery rhyme.) The term has also been applied (as "sight rhyme") to words which are similar only in their written forms.
Rime is the original spelling of the word. The spelling rhyme, which arose due to confusion with the word rhythm, is more commonly used today.
The concept of rhyme and its role in poetry vary considerably in different cultures. In modern English, and most European literary traditions, it is the final vowel/ consonant combination found at the ends of lines that are repeated across the rhyming words.
When words within a single line are rhymed, it is called an internal rhyme.
Categories of rhyme include:
A rhyme schemeA rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme. For example "abab" indicates a four-line stanza in which the first and third lines rhyme, as do the second and fourth. is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem.
See English poetryThe history of English poetry stretches from the middle of the 7th century to the present day. Over this period, English poets have written some of the most enduring poems in European culture, and the language and its poetry have spread around the globe.
Old English poetryOld English poetry is based upon one system of verse construction which was used for all poems. The system consisted of five permutations on a base verse scheme; any one of the five types could be used in any verse. The system is founded upon accent, alli is mostly alliterative verseBeowulf is written in alliterative verse. In prosody, alliterative verse is any of a number of closely related verse forms that are the common inheritance of the older Germanic languages. This was the verse form in which the Old English epic Beowulf was w. One of the earliest rhyming poems in English is The Rhyming PoemThe Rhyming Poem is one of the poems found in the Exeter Book. It is remarkable for being no later than the 10th century, in Old English, and written in rhyming couplets. Rhyme is otherwise virtually unknown among Anglo-Saxon literature, which used allite.No English words rhyme (in the strict sense of masculine or feminine ryhme) with wasp.