This talk explores some of the functions of rhyme and the types of rhymes that poets use. One of these functions is epistemological: rhyme manipulates what is knowable in the poem. Rhyme can be illusory in that it appears to dispense wisdom and truth. Therein lies rhyme’s great problem, and its great appeal: the implicit simile it creates between pairs or groups of words. Rhyme generates epistemological force by illuminating a relationship between words. This relationship can be unusual or surprising; in any case, the association of one word with another shifts and expands its meaning. Rhyme increases the semantic importance of a word, yet it potentially causes a rift between sound and sense. We desire that words which sound alike mean alike; the call of the rhyme invites semantic comparison. The simultaneous, or near-simultaneous perception of similarity and difference can cause the audience to reevaluate the relationship between language and the world. What can be known, in other words, becomes subject to question.
