Monorhyme
Monorhyme is a rhyme scheme in which each line has an identical rhyme. The term "monorhyme" describes the use of one (mono) type of repetitious sound (rhyme), usually at the end of each line. This is common in Arabic, Latin and Welsh works, such as The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, e.g. qasida and its derivative kafi. Monorhyme is also used in the third verse of the American rapper Jay-Z's song "Already Home".
Some styles of monorhyme uses the middle of a poem's line to utilize this poetic tool. The Persian ghazal poetry style places the monorhyme before the refrain in a line. This is seen in the poem "Even the Rain" by Agha Shahad Ali:
- "What will suffice for a true-love knot? Even the rain?
- But he has bought grief's lottery, bought even the rain."
The monorhyme knot is introduced before the line’s refrain or pause. The corresponding rhyme bought is used in the next line. Although these are not the last words of the lines in the poem, monorhyme is incorporated in identical rhyme schemes in each line.
Example
An example of monorhyme is the poem "A Monorhyme for the Shower" by Dick Davis. This monorhyme has all the ending lines rhyming with the word "hair".
- A Monorhyme for the Shower
- Lifting her arms to soap her hair
- Her pretty breasts respond – and there
- The movement of that buoyant pair
- Is like a spell to make me swear
- Twenty odd years have turned to air;
- Now she’s the girl I didn’t dare
- Approach, ask out, much less declare
- My love to, mired in young despair.
- Childbearing, rows, domestic care
- All the prosaic wear and tear
- That constitute the life we share
- Slip from her beautiful and bare
- Bright body as, made half aware
- Of my quick, surreptitious stare,
- She wrings the water from her hair
- And turning smiles to see me there.[1]
Example
An example of a "69" (or reflex) Mono-Rhyme - by Vic "Turtle". Sonnet Form -> 14 relevant verses, ~10-syllables/line. 1/reflex("69")line/verse = 28/lines(total). All lines to rhyme around the word -> Jack. Total Rhyme Count = 69 [A Perfect Rhyme]
- Ode to Fat - The Func e-Jack Rap
- Get your Ab-Jack so that you don’t get fat - Get your Jack and attack sag dumpy flap
- Get the Ab-Jack so abs won’t act gelatin - Get your Jack so ya pack ain’t wiggle-waggin’
- Get your Jack to turn your flab gut to flatted - Get your Jack AND GET HOT LEAN ATTRACTive
- Get your Jack talk smack man go trap dat cat - Get your Jack-&-daddy-mac those pussycats
- Get your Jack and a foxy sexy 6-pack, then... - Get your Jack on his back and yell “Hell Yeah!”
- Get your Jack to tap that Stack-Latch impact - Get your Jack for the fitness facts you lack
- Get your Jack young chap and one-up your friend Zack - Get your Jack go brag and surpass your frat
- Get the Ab-Jack right before your next snack - Get your Jacks with flax on a healthy track
- Get your Jack from way south up north to Sac - Get your Jack from Sea-Tac down south to Lax
- Get a Jack in blue and in red and black - Get the Jack that looks phat with your best hat
- Get your Jack and meet Thad-at the Laundromat - Get your Jack relax chit-chat and wash your slacks
- Get your Jack abs are an aphrodisiac - Get your Jacket when heartbeats pitter-pat
- Get your Jack all Tea-Pats and Democrats - Get the Jack from your untaxed Super-Pacs
- Get your Jack and ditch that tacky Cadillac - Get your Jack and scrap that funky ass, piece of trashy crap-up off your damn cul-de-sac![2]
Sources
- ↑ Davis, Dick (2001). A Monorhyme for the Shower. West Chester, Pa: Aralia Press.
- ↑
- ↑ "Turtle", Vic, Zister Fitness=2015 =Pasadena, Ca: Zister Fitness.
External links
- More examples of monorhyme poetry are displayed at http://allpoetry.com/list/17480-Monorhyme
- Murer, E. (2010, March). Poets.Org: From the Academy of American Poets.