A feminine rhyme is a rhyme that matches two or more syllables, usually at the end of respective lines, in which the final syllable or syllables are unstressed.
Contents |
Feminine rhyme is relatively rare in English poetry and usually appears as a special effect. However, the Hudibrastic relies upon feminine rhyme for its comedy, and limericks will often employ outlandish feminine rhymes for their humor. Irish satirist Jonathan Swift used many feminine rhymes in his poetry.
William Shakespeare's Sonnet number 20 makes use of feminine rhymes:
| “ | A woman’s face with nature’s own hand painted, Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion; |
” |
Edgar Allan Poe's poem The Raven employs multiple feminine rhymes as internal rhymes throughout.
In French verse, a feminine rhyme is one in which the final syllable is a "silent" e, even if the word is masculine. In classical French poetry, two feminine rhymes cannot occur in succession.
In hip hop music, especially since the 1990s, the use of feminine rhyme in rapping (often referred to by the colloquial terms "multis" or "multirhymes" — a contraction of "multisyllabic rhymes") is considered a sign of technical skill, and rap artists (such as Elzhi, Big Pun, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Big L, Kool G Rap, Tech N9ne, Pharoahe Monch, Nas, and Redman) have been known to string together large sequences of complex rhyme patterns.
Eminem made extensive use of the technique in his early work, for example, It's OK; (rhymes are marked in bold for clarity):
| “ | "Praying for sleep, Dreaming with a watering mouth, |
” |