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Rhyme in poetry creates structure and symmetry, aiding memorization. It is used in songwriting and advertising, but is most common in poetry. Rhyme was used in oral narratives and is still used in nursery rhymes and folk songs. Shakespeare used complex rhyme schemes and imperfect rhymes can also create symmetry. Rhyme is sometimes translated in foreign language poetry. Inexperienced writers may force rhyme, but modern poets often use non-rhyming formats.
The function of rhyme in poetry is to establish structure by creating a pleasing or even beautiful symmetry between the lines of a poem. In times before the written word, rhyme also helped with memorization, a role it still plays today. Not all poems rhyme, and not all rhymes are poetry; rhyme is also employed in songwriting and advertising copy, for example. The use of rhyme in poetry, however, is the more common application of both, learned by most people while still children. Indeed, for many people, every rhyme is a poem and vice versa.
Rhymed verse is one of the oldest forms of literature, predating the institution of writing itself. There’s a good reason for this: Many primitive cultures used oral, or spoken, narratives to convey important aspects of their history and culture to younger generations. Rhyme is a powerful mnemonic, or memory aid, so many of these narratives were put into rhymed verse form by bards and poets. Rhyme continued to be used for this function until relatively recently, as literacy was not widespread until the 19th and 20th centuries. More talented poets might use rhyme as an asset rather than a limitation.
William Shakespeare, for example, was adept at using rhyme in both poetry and drama. In his plays, he often concluded an act by having a character recite a rhyming couplet, such as The Play Is the Thing in which I’ll Take the King’s Conscience. In Shakespeare’s day, poets often used complex rhyme schemes. For example, the sonnet, a poetic form often employed by Shakespeare, employs several quatrains, in which four lines share two rhymes, followed by a single series of rhyming lines. Other poetic forms in use at the time, such as the sestet, employ even more complicated rhyme schemes.
Another important function of rhyme in poetry is to create symmetry, a repeating pattern that often conveys a sense of harmony and beauty to the audience. This can also be achieved if the rhyme is imperfect and the words sound similar but not exactly the same, such as “back” and “done.” This is such an important aspect of poetry that translators of poetry into foreign languages sometimes take care to ensure that their translations rhyme as well as in the original. This is often done with Dante’s Divine Comedy, for example, and Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, written in an early form of English that bears little resemblance to the modern language.
The symmetrical and memory-aid functions of rhyme in poetry mean that it is often used in other contexts. Verses called nursery rhymes, sometimes containing archaic or nonsense words and images, are taught to young children to introduce important concepts and because nursery rhymes are easy for children to remember. Folk songs use rhyme for the same reasons as poems. Inexperienced writers often force their poems to rhyme, even if the verse suffers. Modern poets sometimes forgo rhyme entirely, preferring non-rhyming formats known as blank verse or free verse.
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