Rhyme is a pattern of words that contain similar sounds.

Example :

Go/Show/Glow/Know/Though

Rhythm : The dictionary tells us it is ‘’a movement with uniform recurrence of a beat or accent’’.In its cruest form rhythm has a beat with little or no meaning.Children use them in games and counting-out rhymes.In poetry,rhythm,broadly speaking,is a recognizable pulse or ‘’recurrence’’ which gives a distinct beat to a line and also gives it a shape.

Rhyme is not only a recurrence but a matching of sounds.The pleasure of pairing words to make a kind of musical echo is as old as mankind.The child of this generation may be millions of years away from prehistoric man,but the lullabies and dancing games of today are not much different from those of the cave-dweller.As in the old days,there is a real connection between poetry and magic,between poetry and memory.

Children begin with rhyme and rhythm; even before they can talk,boys and girls echo nursery rhymes and the jingles of Mother Goose.They learn their numbers painlessly by repeating such rhymes as :

One,twoBuckle my shoeThree,fourShut the door

They know the days of the month by memorizing :

Thirty days hath September,April,June and November…

They even pick up bits of history by remembering such simple rhymes as :

Columbus sailed the ocean blueIn fourteen-hundred-ninety-two

But it is not only children who find things easier when they are said in rhyme and rhythm.Farmers and housewives prefer verse to prose for their wise sayings; the music of rhyme helps them to remember.It points up their proverbs and gives a quick turn to the meaning :

A sunshiny showerWon’t last an hour

Rain before seven;Clear by eleven.

March winds and April showersBring forth May flowers.

Wishes Won’t wash dishes

Early to bed and early to riseMakes a man healthy,wealthy,and wise.

The devices of poetry are always being used - and abused in daily life. Not only children and farmers but businessmen understand the value of verse and "apt alliteration's artful aid." Roadside signs, cards in buses, advertisements in newspapers, commercials on radio and television, prove that an idea fastens itself quickly in the mind when it is rhymed. Christmas cards, birthday wishes, condolences, and greetings are most effective when they are in verse. The fourteenth of February brings out the poet in everyone.

Even on the lowest plane, poetry is rarely "rhyme without reason." It sharpens the wit's cleverness and heightens the lover's dearest sentiments.When we are deeply aroused,we express ourselves in some sort of poetry; our emotions spill over into a football cheer,a ballad,or a love lyric.

Prepared By Gökhan Özmen

1011216017

Elt Department Grade 2