September is upon us. Apparently, according to meteorologists, it is now meteorological fall. I prefer astronomical fall, because that means three more weeks of summer, my very favorite season. Besides, my wedding anniversary is next Monday and I was married in the summer, not the fall.
This month, I have decided to check out the S section of the poetry dictionary for our prompts. It’s a pretty big section with some great options. I’ll warn you right now, for those who like to plan ahead, I am going to do a sestina prompt on September 24. But for this week, I’ve selected a much easier entry: slant rhyme.
SLANT RHYME (also called approximate rhyme, half rhyme, near rhyme, and off rhyme) Rhyme that neither looks nor sounds exact. Instead of echoing both vowel and consonant, a slant rhyme echoes only one of them.
With monosyllabic words, if the vowel is the same but the final consonant changes, the rhyme is assonant (myth/whip, hope/cone, break/cape). If the final consonant is the same but the vowel changes, the rhyme is consonant (myth/bath, hope/cape, break/smack). If the vowel changes but the consonants surrounding it remain the same, the rhyme is double-consonant (myth/math, hope/hype, break/brook).
With polysyllabic words, the same combinations hold true for the final accent, but the unstressed syllable(s) at the end usually stay the same, dangling like little tails (Bible/sidle/stubble/babble).
Poets differ in their standards of decency concerning proper or improper slant rhymes.
the poetry dictionary, pg. 288
The Challenge
The challenge today is to write a poem using slant rhymes at the ends of lines. You can write your poem however you like. You can even throw in some internal slant rhymes. If you need some help coming up with slant rhymes, check out RhymeZone where you can search for true rhymes or near rhymes for any word.
The paint chip words and phrases you have to work with are wheat fields, raven, moonstone, foggy harbor, and brown-paper package. In celebration of my 35th wedding anniversary, I would like you to use three of these five paint chips in your poem. They can be part of a slant rhyme or used elsewhere in the poem.
My Poem
As I mentioned above, I’m going to write a few couplets. One of them I partially wrote in my head yesterday morning, long before I finished this post. It includes a slant rhyme I used in a discarded stanza of the poem I wrote for my sister Suz.
A Silly Slanty Poem Sometimes when I am feeling fierce I include ravens in my verse Sometimes when I see a tearstain I spice my poem with moonstone Sometimes when rhyme has little hope I see a foggy harbor drape Sometimes when I challenge you all I learn slant rhymes are hard as hell
Your Turn
Now it’s your turn to write a little verse with slant rhyme. Hopefully it’s not as hard for you as it was for me. You can share your poem in the comments, or post it on your own blog and drop a link in the comments. Extra bonus points for anyone who makes me chuckle, either because your rhymes are so good or because they are so bad I can’t help it. It’s not as easy as it looks when you’re trying to work in paint chips too.