What is a cross rhyme? Cross, pair, ring rhyme

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Many try to compose poetry in their youth. Some even continue to "suffer" this in adulthood, imagining themselves as modern Pushkin - a talented and unsurpassed poet. But, unfortunately, not always what comes out from the pen of nuggets can be called real poetry. Even if we do not take into account the content of the verses, the brightness of poetic images, the technical side of the work often leaves much to be desired.

Version technique

The meter (rhythm) and rhyme are important conditions for the versification technique. Despite the fact that today a lot of subcultures have appeared, where the measured and rhythmic lines are ignored during versification, even they fail to completely abandon rhymes. An example of this today is the fashionable youth movement called rap: youth is looking for its own ways of expressing the inner world. And for those who develop new trends in poetic art, and for those who are fans of the classical direction in poetry, today it is so important to know what rhymes are in the Russian language.

Cross rhyme

Most poems are written in such a way that they rhyme in pairs the first and third lines, as well as the second and fourth. If, when parsing a stanza, we connect rhyme words with arcs, then the following fact will catch your eye: the arcs will intersect, as if forming a cross. That is why this phenomenon is called "cross rhyme". A verse called "Reflections on the Sea Shore" will help to consider this method of versification with an example.

Reflections on the seashore

It's not me - it's seagulls crying, And said goodbye to the past summer, It wasn't my name, the bright distances…

The sea whispered answers to them

To the questions: “But how to live on?

How to survive something, restless?

How not to see lies and falsehood in everything?

Deal with the soul, littered with

Junk of pain, resentment and doubt?

How to avoid mistakes

And out of a thousand hundreds of solutions

Find the correct, exact answer?”

But, tired of sobs, they fell silent

Seagulls. The sea has gone to sleep.

And the answers are like needles in the hay, Not to be found unless God's grace.

Male, feminine, dactylic and hyperdactylic rhymes: general information

Here in each quatrain (a stanza consisting of four lines) a cross rhyme is used. Most often, poets write all quatrains in one single poem using one of several rhyming methods: either all lines end in stressed syllables (male rhyme), or all lines have a female rhyme when the stress falls on the penultimate syllable, or one of the rhymed pairs lineshas a masculine rhyme, and the other pair has a feminine rhyme. Slightly less common is dactylic rhyme, where a line ends in two unstressed syllables preceded by a stressed one. And it is very rare to find a hyperdactylic (four- or even five-syllable) rhyme, when a stressed syllable is followed by three or more unstressed syllables. The use of all variants at once in one poem is a rather rare phenomenon.

Male, feminine, dactylic and hyperdactylic rhyme: analysis by example

In the previously presented example, masculine, feminine and dactylic cross rhyme can be traced as a variant of the versification method. For example, in the first and last quatrains, the use of exclusively feminine rhymes is observed, and in the second stanza, the first and third lines are connected by a feminine rhyme, and the second and third by dactylic. The third quatrain is an example of the use of a combination of female-male rhyme. In fact, here the cross rhyme is expressed by the scheme AbAb, where the capital letter represents the feminine rhyme, and the lower case represents the masculine.

Ring rhyme

Occurs as often as cross rhyme, encircling rhyming lines. With this method of versification, the first is combined with the fourth line, and the second with the third. As an example of a girdle, and in a different way - a ring rhyme, you can use this stanza from the poems "About Mom":

What can I do? Just this little:

Kiss your shriveled hands…

They never knew boredom, They had no strength to rest.

As you can see from the example, there is a rhyme in the first and fourth lines (little - left), as well as in the second and third (hands - boredom).

Just like the cross, the ring rhyme can have variants of male, female, dactylic and hyperdactylic, as well as their combinations. Most often, this type of versification is used in sonnets and almost never in Russian folk poetry. It first appeared in the 18th century, at the end of the syllabic period of versification. You can watch it in Antioch Cantemir in "Letter II to his verses".

Pair rhyme in children's poetry

When talking about the ways of adding poetry, one cannot fail to mention the paired rhyme. Just like ring and cross, paired rhyme is observed in Russian poetry quite often. This is probably the simplest, most understandable and accessible type of poetry; it is not for nothing that most poetic works for children are written in this way. This includes tongue twisters, counting rhymes, and many riddles.

For example, such riddles in verse are written in paired rhyme:

He is a hot steamer, floating on matter.

And behind him such a smooth surface - not a wrinkle to be seen!

Or:

Long ears and short tail, He lives in a cage, fluffy and timid.

The well-known rhyme about Tanya, who dropped the ball into the river, authored by Agniya Barto, just demonstrates the use of a paired rhyme. Yes, and other poems, for example, about a bull that lay down to sleep on its side in a box, a sleepy bear that lay down in bed, and about an elephant that does not want to sleep, nods its head andsending greetings to his elephant.

Onegin stanza

Usually, the poet writes the whole work in one chosen key, using either a ring, or a pair, or a cross rhyme. But Pushkin, Alexander Sergeevich, presented the world with an original version, which was named the “Onegin stanza” in his honor, as it appeared in the first lines of the novel “Eugene Onegin”. The Onegin stanza consists of three quatrains and a final couplet. Here in one poem there are immediately ring, pair, cross rhymes. This method is still alive today, and sometimes the authors of poetic works turn to it in order to express their feelings and thoughts more clearly.

As an example, you can take the verses "About Mom" in full, one quatrain of which has already been considered as an example of encircling rhyme.

About Mom

Didn't forget why I'm home, I did not forget the smell of my native.

Mom, I bought you roses!

Mommy, I'm sorry it's late…

What can I do? Just this little:

Kiss your shriveled hands…

They never knew boredom, They had no strength to rest.

And eyes, once bright blue, Looking from the photo - faded blue…

Hair, luxurious, beautiful, Thinned, turned gray…

You were waiting for me here at the threshold -

I'm just a little late…

When parsing the first quatrain, it becomes clear that a steam room is involved in its writingrhyme. True, it should also be noted that assonance rhyme is used here, in which only vowel sounds are consonant, but not consonants.

Indeed, the words "home" and "native" at first glance, it is difficult to call a rhyme. But in the word "at home" the last unstressed vowel is in II weak position, therefore it gives a reduced sound "ъ". In the word "native" the same sound is given by the letter "o" in a shock position. Similarly, the words "roses" and "late" can be parsed. True, this rhyme is reinforced by the common consonant "z".

The second quatrain was discussed by us above: there is a girdle or ring rhyme here. The third quatrain uses a cross rhyme. And completes the Onegin stanza, as required by the chosen style, a couplet.

This is such a difficult thing to write poetry. And yet, even a robot can be taught to choose the right rhymes, choose the way of versification, and observe the rhythmic pattern. But putting a piece of your soul into a work is not for everyone.