Rhyme is a powerful device within poetry. It impacts the way you read a poem and adds meaning behind the words a poet writes. The rhymes within a poem can show us as much about the poem as the words themselves can.
There are many different types of rhyme. When most people think of rhymes, what typically comes to mind are perfect rhymes or full rhymes, meaning words that rhyme perfectly (cat, hat, rat). Yet there are many other types of rhyme in addition to this. The two that are particularly interesting are slant rhymes and eye rhymes. A slant rhyme is when words are very similar—but not identical sounding (love and move). They also go by the name of imperfect, or half rhymes. Eye rhymes occur when two words are spelled similarly and look as if they would be pronounced the same but aren’t (comb and tomb).
It is easy to presume that the use of perfect rhyme can happen by coincidence, that in some cases poets use perfect rhyme for the simple motive of aiding the flow and unity of their work. Yet when faced with eye rhymes and slant rhymes, this seems more of a deliberate choice, to specifically select words that almost sound similar but not quite, surely one must have a reason for this less traditional way of rhyme?
I will be discussing one such poet whose choice of rhyme is particularly meaningful: Sylvia Plath. Plath uses slant rhyme within her poem ‘Ariel’ as a form of expression, mirroring her own emotional turmoil with their uncomfortable rhyme sound.
The impact of slant-rhymes within Plath’s ‘Ariel’ creates a sense of freedom, of not being restricted by a perfect rhyming pattern. This mirrors Plath’s own emotions, throughout her life she was oppressed as a woman within 1950’s patriarchal society, and isolated by her depression, and as such the slant-rhyme within the poem can be seen as an extension of these emotions, as she breaks free from all these things that try to pull her down. Within the poem, the speaker embarks on a morning horseback ride, as she rides, she becomes more at one with the horse and the environment around her. The speaker talks of how ‘something else’, some other force seems to be pulling her along, describing how ‘flakes’ fall from her ‘heels’ she is becoming something new and shedding her old self, with the partial rhyme of ‘else’ and ‘heels’ amidst the perfect rhymes of ‘air’ and ‘hair’ reflecting this transition and growth. The half rhymes are sporadic throughout the poem, ‘blue’ and ‘sister to’, ‘mouthfuls’ and ‘shadows’ ‘else’ and ‘heels’ with the unsatisfying half-rhyme of ‘stringencies’ and ‘seas’ connecting the stanzas together in a disordered way. Though the poem can be seen as an extended metaphor for freedom from oppressive society, it also can be viewed as the freedom Plath got from writing poetry. ‘Ariel’ therefore has an element of ‘Ars poetica’, her writing gave her a voice in a society where she had none, and an escape from being stuck in her own head, the slant-rhymes reflect her defiance against conforming to the expected norms of society. She does not give into a set rhyme pattern, but rather uses imperfect rhyme to create this sense of eerie instability and wild freedom she so desperately craves. Therefore, it can be argued that Plath chose to use slant-rhyme in ‘Ariel’ as it reflects her feelings when writing the poem, Ariel is about freedom and shedding of the speaker’s past self, and as such it seems appropriate that imperfect rhymes are used to convey this sense of non-conformity and liberation.
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