rhyme

[Joel S. Berson]

Slant rhyme has been mentioned on C18-L, the "18th Century
Interdisciplinary Discussion" list.  One example cited was Shelley's
"Ozymandias".  But I saw no discussion of its frequency -- or
criticism -- on the list.

Joel

At 12/20/2009 11:15 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>Hasn't someone devoted his life to the history of slant rhyme in English
>Literature?  I recall some profs who gave the impression tha Emily Dickinson
>and Wilfred Owen were the prophets of slant rhyme, and they come late in
>history.
>
>Not that it couldn't have existed earlier, but perhaps it was usually
>considered to be a forgivable lapse rather than a virtue or a brilliant
>variation.  Just guessing.
>
>JL
>
>On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 10:34 AM, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> > Subject:      rhyme
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On their final exam, my student were required to discuss this poem by John
> > Donne:
> >
> > Oh my black soul! now thou art summoned
> > By sickness, death's herald, and champion;
> > Thou art like a pilgrim which abroad hath done
> > Treason, and durst not turn to whence he is fled,
> > Or like a thief, which till death's doom be read,
> > Wisheth himself delivered from prison;
> > But damned and haled to execution,
> > Wisheth that still he might be imprisoned.
> > Yet grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lack;
> > But who shall give thee that grace to begin?
> > Oh make thyself with holy mourning black,
> > And red with blushing, as thou art with sin;
> > Or wash thee in Christ's blood, which hath this might
> > That being red, it dyes red souls to white.
> >
> > Several of the students commented that the sonnet is anomalous in that the
> > first 8 lines are unrhymed--failing to take account of the syllabic "-ed"
> > endings (given something like tertiary stress) that facilitate the
> > ostensible "summoned/fled/read/imprisoned" rhyme, or the disyllabic "-tion"
> > (again with some stress on the last syllable) necessary to rhyme
> > "champion/done/prison/execution."
> >
> > Surely those were not intended as exact rhymes or even approximate rhymes,
> > although they may be "allowable" by the conventions of early-17th-century
> > verse. The very tenuousness of the rhymes contributes to the dramatic
> > impression of distracted anguish of the part of the persona; he is too
> > desperate (and sinful) even to rhyme right! But the workings of
> grace enable
> > "perfect" rhymes in the sestet.
> >
> > --CD
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org