Rhyme classes in a poem

Rhyme is a characteristic that is often associated with poetic compositions of a lyrical nature, since its embellishing and emphatic effect stands out over many of the other literary devices that exist. Poets use rhyme to express greater beauty and sensitivity through their compositions, for this reason it is so important to know what the rhyme classes in a poem. In this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to explain rhyming classes in a poem and we will see some examples to better understand it.

Index

1. What is rhyme
2. Assonance rhyme of a poem
3. Consonant rhyme of a poem
4. Free rhyme in a poem

The Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (DRAE) defines rhyme as the "identity of vowel and consonant sounds, or only vowels, from the last stressed vowel in two or more verses". Thus, we can understand that the rhyme consists of the repetition of a sequence of phonemes that start from a stressed syllable at the end of one or more verses.

To mark the rhyme of a poem, it is important look at the last stressed vowel, since not in all poems all verbs rhyme. For example, there are lyrical compositions, such as romances, in which only the even verses rhyme, leaving the odd ones without rhyme, which are called single verses.

In this other lesson from a TEACHER we will discover the structure of a poem so that you know better how these lyrical fragments are composed.

Next, we show you what are the rhyme classes that can exist in a poetic composition. One of them is the assonance rhyme (or partial or imperfect rhyme) that takes place in the last syllable, rhyming only the vowels that make up the words, since the constants are different from each other and do not coincide.

Let's see it through these verses by Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer:

Where is a lonely stone

without ANY inscription,

where oblivion dwells,

there will be my GRAVE.

Image: tongue in caudete

The consonant rhyme (or perfect rhyme) versus the assonance rhyme, we find the consonant rhyme, according to which all letters that make up the last syllable (including vowels and consonants) are equal to each other and make it possible for rhyme to exist.

For example, we can observe an example of consonant rhyme in the following verse by Miguel Hernández:

Every five of JANUARY

every january he put

my goat shoes

to the cold window.

Another of the rhyme classes in a poem They are known as "free rhymes" or also called "free verse". They refer to that verse that lacks rhyme and that it does not have a fixed meter. It is known by the name of single verse.

An example is the following excerpt from Vicente Huidobro:

On the snow you can hear the night slide

the song fell in the trees

And behind the fog they know voices

With one look I lit my cigar

Every time I open my lips

I flood the void with clouds

In the port

The masts are full of nests

As a general rule different types of rhyme such as the assonance and the consonant are not usually combined. However, José de Espronceda uses both in his work The Salamanca student, which we bring as an example to observe the two types of rhyme together, since the even verses have assonance rhyme and the odd ones consonant:

See him, Don Félix is, sword in HAND,

the rest serene, firm the heart;

also from Celina the vengeful brother

mercilessly at his feet fell.

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