Rhyme

Rhyme (properly "rime," the usual spelling being the result of confusion with the word "rhythm"), the art of composing poetry so far as its measure, etc., are concerned. Rhyming is sometimes taken in the narrower sense of similarity of sound in the endings of verses, and is in this sense an invention of post-classical times. The most common rhyme is the one-syllabled or male rhyme, e.g. gave, save, a rhyme which is largely employed in English and German, where monosyllables abound, and the double or female rhyme, e.g. bitter, glitter, which is more common in Italian and Spanish poetry. The French employ both. The triple rhyme also is found in all these languages. European rhyming is thought to have taken its origin in the Latin hymnology of the Church, while the Teutonic and Norse poetry was distinguished by its alliterations. Leonine rhyme is that which rhymes at the middle as well as at the end of verses. Byron, Swinburne, and Browning may be cited as great masters of the art of rhyming.