Home › Glossary › Letter M

Mimic rhyme

Rhyme
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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

Rhyme that imitates or copies sounds from elsewhere in the poem or from external sources

Detailed Definition
A rhyme scheme based on mimicking or copying sounds through exact repetition rather than conventional varied rhyme words. Mimic rhyme creates echo effects and sonic duplication, emphasizing acoustic matching over semantic relationships. This technique produces cyclical or obsessive sound patterns while prioritizing phonetic correspondence, often creating hypnotic or emphatic effects through sound-based rather than meaning-based rhyme choices.
Example
Example in poetry:
Mimic rhyme imitates sounds or other words phonetically: Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky”: “’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves”; E.E. Cummings: “mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful”; Contemporary example: “The buzzzz of neon, the shhh of rain”; In sound poetry: “Klik-klak, swish-swash, boom”; Such rhyme prioritizes auditory play over semantic meaning; It expands poetic language beyond dictionary definitions.
Additional Notes
Rhyme scheme based on mimicking or copying sounds rather than conventional end rhyme. Creates echo effects and sonic duplication. Can be exact repetition or close phonetic matching. Emphasizes sound over meaning in rhyme choices.
Also Known As
echo rhyme repetitive end-sound duplicating rhyme copying rhyme scheme Echolalic rhyme
Skip to main content