Re: Metrical meanderings

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark J. Reed" <markjreed@...>


> On 7/6/06, Sally Caves <scaves@...> wrote:
>> It's called "internal" rhyme.
>
> Oh? I thought internal rhyme was something else - specifically, rhymes
> that occur inside a line, rather than across lines.  To pick an
> extreme example, Tom Lehrer parodying Cole Porter: "are you discerning
> the returning of this churning, burning yearning for you . . ."
Okay, perhaps you're right, and it's a critical term used to describe some
of the Welsh poems that do just this:

Gordyar adar gwlyb neint. (birds loud, streams wet)
llewychyt lloer oer deweint. (moon shines, cold midnight)
crei vym bryt rac gofit heint. (raw my mind from torment of sickness)

yar/-ar, lloer/oer, bryt/gofit (this last an Irish rhyme)

But then:

Kethlyd kathyl uodawc  (singer of endless song)
hiraethawc y llef        (nostalgic its voice)
teith odef. tuth hebawc. (intent on journey, motion of hawk)
coc vreuer yn aber cuawc. (eloquent cuckoo in Abercuawg)

So the rhyme wanders into other lines, but not terminally:

uodawc/hiraethawc, llef/odef.

Critically, we call these internal rhyming or residual rhyming.  Maybe
"residual rhyming" would be a good term.


> I think the "Eclipse" pattern is still "external" rhyme since it
> crosses two different lines; it's just that the rhyme falls in the
> last foot of the first line while falling, as you said, in the
> penultimate foot of the second.
But it's internal rather than terminal... that's the point I'm making.  It's
residual.

>> Chaucer parodies them in Sir Thopas:
>
> "Thopas" is an odd name.   Perhaps related to Sir Topham Hatt, the Fat
> Director from The Railway Series? :)
>
>> Into his sadel he clamb anon
>> And priketh over stile and stoon
>> An elf-queene for t'espye,
>> Til he so longe hath riden and goon
>> That he foond, in a pryve woon,
>> The contree of Fairye
>>                        So wilde!
>> For in that contree was ther noon
>> That to him durste ride or goon
>> Neither wyf ne childe.
>
> Heh!
Eventually Harry Bailie makes him shut up. :)  Chaucer's sputtering
rejoinder is that it's "the best rhyme that I can."

>> As for the consonant cluster split, it's more often found in lyrics to
>> popular songs, I think.  So you have a rhyme on "isle," and you "cheat" a
>> little by rhyming it with "chile-din your arms."
>
> "Isle" would definitely be a better rhyme for "child in" than than
> "wild" is, to me.
>
>> PS: Irish rhyme is interesting in that it rhymes "strong" and "weak"
>> rhyme
>> patterns together:  see/country, mile/profile, best/contest, etc.
>
> Hm.  That's definitionally not a "rhyme", to my way of thinking.
Oh, but it is, but to other's way of thinking.   It's quite common in Irish
and Welsh poetry.  It depends on what cultural expectations you bring to
rhyme scheme. I'm not making that up: it's called an "Irish rhyme," but as
you can see from the examples I gave above from Claf Abercuawg it was used
in Welsh poetry too.  It provides a precedent for more modern poets, so yes,
it becomes "definitional."  Strange, and uncouth sounding, but once you know
it and get used to it, a respected pattern.

  I've
> rhymed unstressed syllables in my own poetry (for instance, in my
> high-school-award-winning poem "Trust", whose first stanza is
> reproduced below. :)), but not with stressed syllables.
>
> I watch as the mother bluejay
> Gently nudges her reluctant babies
> Into the harsh wind, knowing they
> Will fly.
Well, this strikes me as just as unusual-sounding as Irish rhyme.
Congratulations on the award. :D

Sally

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