What could you say about the Rhyme in this Poem?

Question

I've noticed it uses a perfect Rhyme in the 1st and 2nd Stanza's. However, for the first stanza, the rhyme occurs on the 1st and 3rd lines. Whereas in the second stanza, they occur on the 2nd and 4th lines. What else could you say about it.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/180947

Thanks ! :)

Answer 1

You're asking about the first two stanzas of "A Receipt to Cure the Vapors" by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu:



Why will Delia thus retire,

And idly languish life away?

While the sighing crowd admire,

’Tis too soon for hartshorn tea:





All those dismal looks and fretting

Cannot Damon’s life restore;

Long ago the worms have eat him,

You can never see him more.



The whole poem uses a rhyme scheme known as "cross rhyme" or "alternating rhyme" -- ABAB CDCD EFEF, etc. In stanza 1, retire/admire is an example of perfect rhyme and away/tea is an example of slant rhyme. In stanza 2, fretting/eat him (probably pronounced "et him") is an example of slant rhyme and restore/more is an example of perfect rhyme.



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Korchnoi makes an excellent point. Pronunciations do change over time (as well as varying among different English-speaking populations), so one century's perfect rhymes can become another century's slant rhymes.

Answer 2

A riming poem is neater, and has a extra typical flow, than a non-rimed one. Which means that riming is more suitable when the poet has a clear notion of what she needs to assert, and needs to present an international which more often than not is ordered and tidy. Non-riming poems are better the place the thought has breaks and eddies, or where the poet's world is muddled or tricky one way or the other. I don't suppose which you could choose between them. Riming poems are extra like a lecture, or a lesson; an unrimed poem is more like someone having a conversation with you. Some folks are extra at ease with rimed poems, for the reason that that's what they are used to. But when you flip to poetry for comfort, you might be doing it mistaken. ..... I am amazed that someone can read Keats' Ode to a Nightingale and think it would not rime.

Answer 3

Also, don't forget the possibility that in the author's time, "tea" was pronounced "tay," so that it actually would rhyme with "away." This was true even in some dialects in the 19th century -- recall the Irish-American railroad workers' folk/protest song "Drill, ye tarriers, drill," which has the line "So it's work all day for the sugar in your tay when you're working for the U.P. Railway."

Answer 4

Post it.