[Bards] Need help with formats

[rudin]

Esther asked:

>PS  Please explain "feminine endings" in English -- I
> didn't think Modern / renaissance English used them,
> with one or two archaic survival exceptions. Am I
> totally off base?

No -- I just confused you by using the generic phrase “feminine 
ending” instead of the specific term “feminine rhyme.”

I’m not talking about gender in an inflected language.  I’m 
talking about rhymes.

Maculine rhymes are one-syllable rhymes: coat / boat, 
demonstrate/palpitate.  The rhyme is a single, final, accented 
syllable.

Feminine rhymes are two syllable rhymes.  Border / order; 
captain / wrapped in.  The rhyme is the accented penultimate 
(second-to-last) syllable plus the unaccented ultimate syllable.  
What determines whether two words rhyme is everything from the 
accented syllable onward.  Boring / raking is not a masculine 
rhyming pair, because the accent is on the penultimate syllable.  
By contrast, ring / king is a masculine rhyming pair.

There’s no special term for rhymes of more than two syllables: 
following / swallow wing, Bosphorus / phosphorus.  In the words of 
Master Cadfan, “Three-syllable rhymes have no sex.  That must be 
why there are so few of them.”

This definition of rhyme is not true in all languages.  In 
classical Latin and Greek, the meter is based on the length of the 
syllable, not the accent.  In Welsh, you are sometimes required to 
rhyme accented with unaccented syllables.  This sounds really 
weird in English:

And when all is done and said,
I like my rhymes accented.
A good rhyme will loudly ring,
But the Welsh want it fading
Into the night, and I’m sure
It loses all its power.

Robin of Gilwell / Jay Rudin

 

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