Monorhyme

Monorhyme is a passage, stanza, or entire poem in which all lines have the same end rhyme. The term "monorhyme" describes the use of one (mono) type of repetitious sound (rhyme). This is common in Arabic, Latin and Welsh work, such as The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, e.g., qasida and its derivative kafi.

Some styles of monorhyme use the end of a poem's line to utilize this poetic tool. The Persian ghazal poetry style places the monorhyme before the refrain in a line. This is seen in the poem "Even the Rain" by Agha Shahid Ali:

"What will suffice for a true-love knot? Even the rain?

But he has bought grief's lottery, bought even the rain."

The monorhyme knot is introduced before the line’s refrain or pause. The corresponding rhyme bought is used in the next line. Although these are not the last words of the lines in the poem, monorhyme is incorporated in identical rhyme schemes in each line.

Example

An example of monorhyme is the poem "A Monorhyme for the Shower" by Dick Davis. This monorhyme has all the ending lines rhyming with the word "hair". For demonstration purposes, the final seven lines read as follows:

All the prosaic wear and tear

That constitute the life we share

Slip from her beautiful and bare

Bright body as, made half aware

Of my quick, surreptitious stare,

She wrings the water from her hair

And turning smiles to see me there.

There is also a monorhyme sung by Willy Wonka in the 1973 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, during the dark tunnel scene, with all lines ending with words rhyming with "owing".

See also

• Perfect and imperfect rhymes
• "Every Breath You Take"
• "Andrew in Drag"

Sources

• Cushman, Stephen; Clare Cavanagh; Jahan Ramazani, Paul Rouzer (2012). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics (4th ed.). Princeton University Press. pp. 898–899. ISBN 978-1-4008-4142-4.