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Harsh rhyme

Rhyme
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A rhyme pairing that creates discordant or unpleasant acoustic effects

Detailed Definition
Harsh rhyme refers to sound correspondence featuring rough, grating phonetic qualities. Through consonant clusters, abrupt combinations, or clashing sounds, these rhymes create deliberately unpleasant acoustic effects that may reinforce themes of discord, ugliness, or violence while maintaining technical sound matching.
Example
Example in poetry:
Harsh rhyme uses dissonant or jarring sound pairings: Wilfred Owen’s “Anthem for Doomed Youth” (“monstrous anger of the guns” / “hasty orisons”); Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” (“I began to talk like a Jew” / “I think I may well be a Jew”); Gerard Manley Hopkins’ sprung rhythm creates abrasive internal rhymes; contemporary examples include Danez Smith’s “summer, somewhere” with guttural consonance; Paul Muldoon’s “Why Brownlee Left” uses near-miss rhymes for unease.
Additional Notes
Rhyme creating harsh acoustic effect. May be intentional for satirical purposes or to match violent content. Differs from near-rhyme in being complete but cacophonous.
Also Known As
Discordant rhyme Grating echo Jarring pairing Dissonant rhyme
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