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Terminal 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

Rhyme occurring at the end of lines, the most common rhyme placement

Detailed Definition
Terminal rhyme: Rhyme occurring at line endings, the most common rhyme placement in Western poetry. Terminal rhyme creates closure, emphasizes line units, and provides predictable pattern satisfying readers' expectations. This conventional placement distinguishes rhymed verse from prose and establishes line as meaningful unit. Terminal rhyme dominated poetry for centuries and continues shaping reader expectations about rhyme location. Understanding terminal rhyme as specific placement rather than rhyme's only possible position reveals other options including internal, beginning, or distributed rhyme, showing terminal placement as choice rather than necessity.
Example
Example in poetry:
Terminal rhyme appears in Shakespeare’s sonnets: “day / May”; In Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”: “ear / near”; In Emily Dickinson: “hope / rope”; In W.B. Yeats: “artifice / gyre”; In Gwendolyn Brooks: “school / cool”; In contemporary poet Terrance Hayes: strategic end-rhyme in free verse.
Additional Notes
Terminal rhyme occurs at line endings, the most common rhyme placement. This traditional positioning creates clear sonic patterns and strong closure, fundamental to most rhymed verse forms.
Also Known As
End rhyme Closing rhyme Final rhyme After-rhyme Concluding rhyme End-word rhyme ending rhyme Line-end rhyme resolution couplet Rimed ends Terminal pair Final couplet
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