If the sounds coincide, the difference of the letters is unimportant.

Bold in the practice of mistaken rules,

Prescribe, apply, and call their masters fools.

They talk of principles, but notions prize,
And all to one loved folly sacrifice.

§ 563. Analysis of a rhyming syllable.—Let the syllable told be taken to pieces. For metrical purposes it consists of three parts or elements: 1, the vowel (o); 2, the part preceding the vowel (t); 3, the part following the vowel (ld). The same may be done with the word bold. The two words can now be compared with each other. The comparison shows that the vowel is in each the same (o); that the part following the vowel (ld) is the same; and, finally, that the part preceding the vowel is different (t and b). This difference between the part preceding the vowel is essential.

Told, compared with itself (told), is no rhyme, but an homœoteleuton (óμoios, homoios like, and reλÀεÚTη, teleutæ = end) or like-ending. It differs from a rhyme in having the parts preceding the vowel alike. Absolute identity of termination is not recognised in English poetry, except so far as it is mistaken for rhyme.

The soft-flowing outline that steals from the eye,
Who threw o'er the surface? did you or did I?
WHITEHEAD.

Here the difference in spelling simulates a difference in sound, and a homœoteleuton takes the appearance of a rhyme.

Bold and note.-As compared with each other, these words have two of the elements of a rhyme: viz. the identity of the vowel, and the difference of the parts preceding it. They want, however, the third essential, or the identity of the parts following; ld being different from t. The coincidence, however, as far as it goes, constitutes a point in metre, as will

soon be seen.

Bold and mild.-Here also are two of the elements of a rhyme, viz. the identity of the parts following the vowel (ld), and the difference of the parts preceding (b and m). The

identity of the vowel (o being different from i) is, however, wanting.

Rhymes may consist of a single syllable, as told, bold; of two syllables, as water, daughter; of three, as cheerily, wearily. Now, the rhyme begins where the dissimilarity of parts immediately before the main vowel begins. Then follows the vowel; and, lastly, the parts after the vowel. All the parts after the vowel must be absolutely identical. Mere similarity is insufficient.

Then come ere a minute's gone,

For the long summer day
Puts its wings, swift as linnets' on,
For flying away.-CLARE.

In the lines just quoted there is no rhyme, but an assonance. The identity of the parts after the main syllable is destroyed by the single sound of the g in gone.

A rhyme, to be perfect, must fall on syllables equally accented. To make sky and the last syllable of merrily serve as rhymes, is to couple an accented syllable with an unaccented one.

A rhyme, to be perfect, must fall upon syllables absolutely accented. To make the last syllables of words like flighty and merrily serve as rhymes, is to couple together two unaccented syllables.

A rhyme consists in the combination of like and unlike sounds. Words like I and eye (homæoteleuta), ease and cease (vowel assonances), love and grove (consonantal assonances), are printers' rhymes; or mere combinations of like and unlike letters.

A rhyme, moreover, consists in the combination of like and unlike articulate sounds-Hit and it are not rhymes, but identical endings; the h being no articulation. To my ear, at least, the pair of words, hit and it, comes under a different class from the pair hit (or it) and pit. Hence

A full and perfect rhyme (the term being stringently defined) consists in the recurrence of one or more final syllables equally and absolutely accented, wherein the vowels and the parts

following the vowel shall be identical, whilst the parts preceding the vowel shall be articulately different.

To this definition, words like old and bold form no exception. At the first view it may be objected that in words like old there is no part preceding the vowel. Compared, however, with bold, the negation of that part constitutes a difference. The same applies to words like go and lo, where the negation of a part following the vowel is a point of identity. Furthermore, I may observe, that the word part is used in the singular number. The assertion is not that every individual sound preceding the vowel must be different, but that the aggregate of them must be so. Hence, pray and bray (where the ris common to both forms) form as true a rhyme as bray and play, where all the sounds preceding a differ.

§ 564. Single Rhymes.—An accented syllable standing by itself, and coming under the conditions given above, constitutes a single rhyme.

'Tis hard to say if greater want of skill
Appear in writing or in judging ill;
But, of the two, less dangerous is the offence
To tire the patience than mislead the sense.
Some few in that, but thousands err in this;

Ten censure wrong, for one that writes amiss.-POPE.

Double Rhymes. An accented syllable followed by an unaccented one, and coming under the conditions given above, constitutes a double rhyme.

The meeting points the sacred hair dissever
From her fair head for ever and for ever.-POPE.

Prove and explain a thing till all men doubt it,

And write about it, Goddess, and about it.-POPE.

Treble Rhymes.—An accented syllable followed by two unaccented ones, and coming under the conditions given above, constitutes a treble rhyme.

Beware that its fatal ascendancy

Do not tempt thee to mope and repine;
With a humble and hopeful dependency
Still await the good pleasure divine.

Success in a higher beatitude

Is the end of what 's under the pole.

A philosopher takes it with gratitude,

And believes it the best in the whole.-BYROM.

§ 565. Constant and inconstant parts of a rhyme. Of the three parts, or elements, of a rhyme, the vowel and the part which follows the vowel are constant, i. e. they cannot be changed without changing or destroying the rhyme. In told and bold, plunder, blunder, both the o or u on one side, and the -ld or -nder on the other are immutable.

Of the three parts, or elements, of a rhyme the part which precedes the vowel is inconstant, i. e. it must be changed in order to effect the rhyme. Thus, old and old, told and told, bold and bold, do not rhyme with each other; although old, bold, told, scold, &c., do. Hence

Rule 1. In two or more syllables that rhyme with each other, neither the vowel nor the sounds which follow it can be different.

Rule 2. In two or more syllables that rhyme with each other, the sounds which precede the vowel cannot be alike.

Now the number of sounds which can precede a vowel is limited it is that of the consonants and consonantal combinations; of which a list can be made à priori.

and so on, the combinations of s being the most complex.

This gives us the following method (or receipt) for the discovery of rhymes:

1. Divide the word to which a rhyme is required, into its constant and inconstant elements.

2. Make up the inconstant element by the different consonants and consonantal combinations until they are exhausted.

3. In the list of words so formed, mark off those which have an existence in the language. These will all rhyme with

each other; and if the list of combinations be exhaustive, there are no other words which will do so.

Example. From the word told, separate the o and -ld, which are constant.

Instead of the inconstant element t, write successively p, pl, pr, b, bl, br, &c.: so that you have the following list:— t-old, p-old, pl-old, pr-old, b-old, bl-old, br-old, &c.

Of these the words like plold, blold, and brold, that have no existence in the language, are only possible, not actual, rhymes. All words have the same number of possible, but not the same number of actual rhymes. Thus, silver is a word amenable to the same process as told—pilver, plilver, prilver, bilver, &c.; yet silver is a word without a corresponding rhyme. This is because the combinations which answer to it do not constitute words, or combinations of words in the English language.

$566. Assonances.

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Approximate rhymes, wherein the vowels only, or the consonants only, or vowels and consonants, coincide, are called assonances.

In the Spanish and Scandinavian literature assonant metres are important, numerous, and prominent.

The following is assonant - Irish, however, rather than English:

O the groves of Blarney

They are so charming,

All by the purling of soft silent brooks;
With banks of roses,

That spontaneous grow there,

All standing in order by the sweet rock close.