half-rhyme

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half-rhyme

In verse, a rhyme in which the consonant sounds are similar but not the vowel sounds. For example, in her poem The Soul Selects, the US poet Emily Dickinson (a poet who made extensive use of half-rhyme) rhymes gate and mat, one and stone.

In a more emphatic form of half-rhyme, two consonant sounds are similar:

frowned and friend, hall and hell.

Half-rhymes allow a poet a more subtle range of rhyming effects, especially when combined with other rhyming schemes, and help to avoid the sing-song chiming of full rhymes. Moreover, half-rhymes can introduce a slight note of discord (a lack of complete harmony), an effect that has been subtly exploited by many 20th-century poets.

Though a familiar feature of several literary traditions (notably the Irish, Welsh, and Icelandic), half-rhymes were not widely used in English-language verse until the second half of the 19th century, when they were effectively exploited by Emily Dickinson in the USA and Gerard Manley Hopkins in Britain. Other poets noted for their skilful use of half-rhymes include W B Yeats, Wilfred Owen, W H Auden, and Dylan Thomas.

The earliest English writer to employ half-rhymes systematically was the 17th-century poet Henry Vaughan, though his experiments were not taken up by others.

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No references found			While the average listener might think that the plaintive, witty half-rhymes of his records are the result of hours spent slaving over a hot notepad this is not, he says, the case. Another Sweet taste of success; Cardiff singer-songwriter Stephen ... by South Wales Echo (Cardiff, Wales) As the audience listens, agog, West half-rhymes about trying to fit through the eye of a needle to reach the Kingdom of Heaven. Kanye? Yes he can! by guardian.co.uk / guardian.co.uk In this short poem, the rhythms of colloquial speech are deftly deployed against full rhymes and half-rhymes ("bar/beer, hours/bars") giving the poem the punch of a holiday postcard. Your LIFE: POETRY CORNER; ONE of Britain's most successful female ... by The Mirror (London, England)			Hale, Nathan Hale, Philip Leslie Hale, Robert Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, William Gardner Hale, William Jay Hale-Bopp Hale-White, William Hales Corners Hales, John Hales, Stephen Halesowen Halesworth Halévy, Elie Halévy, Jacques François Fromental Halévy, Ludovic Haley, Alex Haley, Bill Haley, Jay Haley, William John half duplex Half Moon Bay half tone half-close half-life half-rhyme Halffter, Cristóbal Halffter, Ernesto Halffter, Rodolfo halfpenny halftone halftone process Halgrimson, Amanda Haliartus Haliburton, Thomas Chandler halibut Halicarnassus halide Halidon Hill, Battle of Halifax Halifax County Halifax, Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax Halifax, George Montagu Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax Haliotis halite halitosis Halka Halkirk Hall effect Hall, Anna Maria			half-pin splint half-pin splint half-pin splint half-pin splint half-pint half-pint Half-pipe Half-pipe Half-pipes Half-pipes half-pitch roof half-plate Half-port Half-Power Angle Half-Power Beamwidth Half-Power Beamwidth half-power frequency half-power point half-price Half-Projected Hartree-Fock Model half-pulse-repetition-rate delay Half-Quarter Horse Registry of America half-quartern Half-Rail Differential Logic Half-ray Half-read half-relief half-relief half-remembered half-residence time half-rhyme half-right half-ripsaw half-round chisel half-round file half-round file half-round gutter Half-round hoop half-round molding half-round molding half-ruined Half-Saddlebred Registry of America half-seas over half-seas-over half-second half-section half-seen half-serious Half-Shade Plate Half-Shade Plate Half-shaft half-shift register Half-shirt half-sib half-sib half-sib Half-Sib Reciprocal Recurrent Selection Half-sibling Half-sibling half-side formulas Half-sighted

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