Intoxicated by End Rhyme

That first high, and you crave another and another…

While I love the flexibility and potential for subtlety in free verse, I am not at all against poems composed in metre and end rhyme. It’s just that they are more difficult to write well than many who attempt it recognize. Matching a preset pattern of syllables or sounds is only part of the task.

In a line of verse, the final word is in a stronger position than those preceding. The last read, it holds attention for a split second before the eye reverses course to swing down and back to the left margin. If another line ends with a word that repeats the sound, their chime draws notice. The closer the two lines, the stronger the effect. This is especially the case with masculine (one syllable) rhymes. Their brevity has more blunt impact than rippling (two syllable) feminine rhymes. That impact is greatest if the end rhyme occurs within a pair of immediately following lines—why a rhyming couplet is sometimes chosen to dramatically conclude an entire poem.

Like the thrill of fitting the perfect word into place in a crossword puzzle, keeping the end rhyme pattern going can intoxicate. Children love end rhyme. It’s the magic of the out-of-the-ordinary when sounds start echoing each other, regardless of how silly or nonsensical the end rhymes’ meaning may become. For the younger ones, especially, end rhyme is what makes a poem a poem, as my little grandson once scolded after sniffing his disapproval of my free verse.

For an adult poet struggling to express the ineffable, how tempting to snatch up a word with the lovely desired sound, even if its meaning is not wholly apt—worse, if straining to be profound or witty, the match actually distorts the original intent. As the end rhyming accelerates, the thrill of repeating sound overpowers sense, when both should have worked together. Like a buffoon, the poem trips over its own feet, not enticing, but distracting readers with its tipsy jingle-jangle, and the subtle truth the poet had longed to free is lost.