double rime; it would be better to use the term überreicher Reim (overrich rime), cp. Chaucer: Nicholas solas nothing clothing. This kind of rime is especially common in derivative syllables of romance words, e.g. a) citee pitee nature: entencioun : religioun, b) countenaunce: maintenaunce, c) nacioun: consolacioun confusioun conclusioun. $148. Double Rime. : The so-called 'extended rime', in which the vowels of the riming words are alike, but the consonants between these vowels are different, is related to identical rime. e.g. anoon aloon: agoon bisyde: bityde delyt despytycome: ynome manere matere confusioun conclusioun etc. Another kind of 'extended rime' occurs, illustrated by the following examples, for me for thee to seye to deye I nyste I wiste ful bright ful right that I wolde that I nolde fond I oon: fond I noon began to quake: began to schake. The term double rime would be better for these rimes than for those of § 147, since here two independent rimes occur. $149. Frequency of Identical Rime. All these rimes are due to an effort to extend the rime as much as possible and to make it difficult. Identical rime, therefore, is rare in the first ME. period, more frequent in the second and third periods, especially in Chaucer, from whose work nearly all the above examples are taken, cp. Kaluza, Chaucer und der Rosenroman p. 65 ff. and the Rime-Indexes of the Chaucer Society. This In NE. identical rime is not so common. is mainly due to the development of the language, for the romance derivative syllables have become weakened in NE. and are mostly unstressed. Whilst in ME. we have identical rime in beautee : pitee travaille mervaille; nacioun: religioun creature nature citee: pitee - confusioun: conclusioun, at present city: pity confusion conclusion are ordinary rimes, and beauty: pity travel marvel nation religion creature: nature are no longer rimes. Modern writers on prosody refuse to recognize identical rime as rime, cp. Johnson, Forms of English Poetry, p. 16: "The consonant sounds which precede the vowel sounds must be different", Parsons, English Versification p. 43: "the sounds before the vowels must be unlike, light and bright are proper rhymes; but not right and write". But we still find identical rimes used by Shelley, D. G. Rossetti, Swinburne and other modern poets; e.g. pain pane, wholly holy, Ruth: ruth etc. $150. Position of the Rime. The following rime positions are distinguished: 1. Couplets aa bb etc.. where two consecutive verses rime; e.g. Those evening bells! those evening bells! Of youth, and home, and that sweet time, When last I heard their soothing chime. (Moore.) NOTE. In the NE period, at the close of the seventeenth and in the eighteenth century triplets (three riming verses) were mixed with the couplets. 2. Rime words within the line, 'Binnenreim', e.g. The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrow followed free. We were the first that ever burst Upon that silent sea. (Coleridge.) England queen of the waves whose green inviolate girdle enrings thee round. (Swinburne.) 3. Not only verse-endings rime but also the caesurae, 'eingeflochtener Reim', e.g. Meum est propositum in taberna mori Vinum sit appositum morientis ori etc. (Mapes). Al is man so is tis ern Old in hise sinnes dern wulde ze nu listen (Bestiary). 4. Crossed rime or alternate rime abab results from dividing lines in 3. This rime is much used in English stanzas, e.g. Adieu, adieu! my native shore Fades o'er the waters blue. The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar, The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. (Gray.) 5. By dividing couplets of septenaries without riming caesurae we get a bcb, frequently used in ballads. This is called common metre (§ 229): John Gilpin was a citizen Of credit and renown, A train-band captain eke was he Of famous London town. (Cowper.) The rime is 'interrupted' in the order a ab a. cp. Fitzgerald Rubaiyát of Omar Khayyám e.g. Ah, fill the cup: what boots it to repeat How Time is slipping underneath our Feet? Unborn To-morrow and dead Yesterday Why fret about them if To-day be sweet! 6. Inclusive rime a bb a is rarer in English, e.g. Ring out wild bells, to the wild sky The flying cloud, the frosty light: The year is dying in the night; Ring out wild bells, and let him die. (Tennyson.) One of the Mountains, each a mighty voice: They were thy chosen music, Liberty! (Wordsworth.) sonnets). In the terza rima a single verse divides riming But this verse rimes with the first and verses. third verses of the following stanza, e.g. Then she to me: The greatest of all woes Is to remind us of our happy days In misery, and that thy teacher knows" etc. (Byron.) In ME. we find rime of the form cddde at the end of some stanzas (§ 175). 7. When two riming verses follow couplets we have tail rime: a abccb. The term 'tail-rime' (Schweifreim, rima caudata, rime couëe) is due to the way in which the verses were usually written: Of Beves and of sir Gy, Of roial chivalry. Men speken of romauns of prys, Of Horn Childe, and of Ypotys, Of sir Lybeux and Pleyn-damour, But sir Thopas he bereth the flour The verses, which compose the follow triplets: aaabcccb (§ 179). riation is a a abab (§ 180). tail-rime can Another va b) The Central Middle English Period (1250-1370). § 151. The Development of Prosody in the Central ME. Period. In the second part of the ME. period there begins a separation of rhythms, which had before been mixed. Rime becomes general. The rhythm is one of equal bars with regular interchange of arsis and thesis; only the anacrusis can be present or absent. Short rimed couplets and rimed couplets of septenaries are most used. Occasionally the alexandrine is found. In stanzas verses with three or less beats also occur. At the end of this period, however, an alliterative verse without rime again arises, which in its rhythmical structure shows its connection with the OE. alliterative long line. In the lyrical and narrative poetry of this period we find a number of stanzas, which were probably modelled on Latin and French stanzas but were further developed independently. |