Masculine rhyme
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A masculine rhyme, in English prosody, is a rhyme on a single stressed syllable at the end of a line of poetry. This term is interchangeable with single rhyme, and is often used contrastingly with the terms "feminine rhyme" and "double rhyme."
In English-language poetry, especially serious verse, masculine rhymes comprise a majority of all rhymes. John Donne's poem "Lecture Upon the Shadow" is one of many that utilise exclusively masculine rhyme:
- Stand still, and I will read to thee
- A lecture, love, in Love's philosophy.
- These three hours that we have spent
- Walking here, two shadows went
- Along with us, which we ourselves produced.
- But now the sun is just above our head,
- We do those shadows tread,
- And to brave clearness all things are reduced.