Reading these two excerpts from the following poems,
1. you were the best kiss of my vgoing,
or maybe the worst... glory and torturement,
with you in light I went up from the firmment,
I went down the hell with yougoing!
(The kiss - Olavo Bilac)
2. I now - what unfandteaO!
I don't even think about t anymorei...
But will it never giveandixO
to remember that i forgot youi?
(From loving oblivion - Mario Quintana)
We observe that, in (1), between the first and fourth verses, there is a coincidence of sounds and spelling, and, between the second and third verses, too, isn't that right? These verses present a correspondence of final sounds, since, starting from the last stressed vowel, all phonemes are equal.
In (2), it is possible to notice that the verses present a similarity of vowels from the last stressed vowel. This identity or similarity of sounds is called rime. Rhymes can be classified into perfect and imperfect. We will study its particulars below.
perfect rhyme
As stated earlier, the rhyme is a similarity between
sounds,not letters. Thus, when a poem has a perfect rhyme in its verses, the sounds have an identity between them, even if the spelling is different, that is, in the perfect rhyme, there is a total identity between sounds vowel and consonant.Example:
Most illustrious, dear and old ami,
You will know that for an urgent reasonloved,
On Thursday, 9 amloved,
I really need to talk toi.
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
(Intimate relic – Machado de Assis)
Note that the fragments in bold are repeated in the poem's excerpt to create the rhyme between the sounds of the vowels and the consonants.
Now, look at this other example:
you are the calix;
Me, the dew!
If you don't see meales,
What am I worth?
(Saudade – João de Deus)
Note that the highlighted passages have the similarity of sounds (the rhyme) even though the ending is spelled in two different ways.
Rhyme imperfect
Unlike the perfect one, the imperfect rhyme is characterized by the identity of sounds of two types:
a) Similarity between accented vowels "e" and "o" semi-open with semi-closed:
Example:
How do you love the twilight of aurofrog,
The gentle turning that the forest waves,
The whisper of the winding fountain,
A smiling and sedu imageI'mfrog;
(How I love you – Gonçalves Dias)
Notice the difference between the sounds of the “o” vowels in the first and fourth verses of the poem. In the first, the vowel is semi-open and, in the fourth verse, it is semi-closed.
b) Similarity between oral and nasal vowel sounds:
That he, the sun, floods
The sea, when põand,
dying image
From a heart that breaksOi...
(John of God)
Note that the vowels highlighted in the second and fourth verses have a similarity of sounds, however, a vowel is nasal (põe) and the other vowel is oral (fOi).
By Mariana Rigonatto
Graduated in Letters
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
RIGONATTO, Mariana. "Perfect rhyme and imperfect rhyme"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/literatura/rima-perfeita-rima-imperfeita.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
