Quick English question

[taimatsu]

Re. William Meredith's poem 'The Illiterate', is there a technical term for the use of repeated words instead of rhymes? I can't think of it and can't find the right terms with which to hunt for it. I'm writing an analysis of the poem for this evening, so please don't make any other detailed comments on the poem till after, erm, 7.30pm, so I'm not tempted to copy your brilliant ideas - if you do know the term I'm after, though, please let me know ASAP. :)

Update: undyingking came up trumps - it's identity rhyme (and a touch of ambiguous rhyme, too) as explained on this page. Ah, I do like it when LJ does my homework... :)

Comments

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Jinx. I was just writing a comment about sweetcorn blobs.

Imagine, right, that you don't have enough flour, and by the time you realise it you can't be bothered going out, so you end up with a mix that's far too gloopy. So you decide to try it anyway. It rolls all over the pan, and starts to look like pale manky scrambled eggs, so you just carry on frying it until it goes golden-brown by attrition? Well, turns out you end up with REALLY CRUNCHY but not stodgy sweetcorn blobs, and they're delicious with sweet chilli sauce as I expected the normal ones to be.

Well that's what just happened to me. Working from home eh, that's the life.

[taimatsu]

Oooh, that sounds interesting. If the mix is very thin, though, does the sweetcorn not burn?

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

Possibly a little bit. Not to the point of being inedible, but then you know me...

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

I don't think there is. Make a work up. Lavignation.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

There is a word, it's in the Stephen Fry poetry book a foot above my head and as soon as I can put down the sleepy toddler I'll find it for you if no one else has.

[taimatsu]

If it is, I can go and find my copy and hunt for it. Thank you :)

(Um, do post it if you can, though because I might have mislaid my copy.)

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

I can't think of the word for it, but a google on sestinas and canzones might throw you up some clues, because it's one of the features of a sestina and quite common in a canzone.

[ifimust.livejournal.com]

THIS (http://www.ahapoetry.com/whbkglo.htm) might have an appropriate term?

I know someone gave me a term like that once for a poem that had a repeated couplet - though I can't think what it was and I can't find the original email!

[ifimust.livejournal.com]

Or this ONE (http://www.themediadrome.com/content/articles/words_articles/right_word4_fixed_forms.htm).

Double dactyl was the term I was thinking of, above -but it may not be what you mean?

[taimatsu]

No, a dactyl would be more about metre, surely?

[ifimust.livejournal.com]

Absolutely no idea :} I have a reasonable handle on the idea of terza rima and that's about it.

However, with luck the pages linked might be more useful than I?

[taimatsu]

A dactyl is a type of metrical foot, as Robert notes below. The term I was after was 'identity rhyme' - rhyme using exactly the same words.

[ifimust.livejournal.com]

Ahh, see, it is a term I'd not heard before - but the pun is still horrible. ;)

[borusa.livejournal.com]

A dactyl is ON-off-off, apparently.

This makes Godzilla a terror dactyl.

[flick.livejournal.com]

[groans]

[taimatsu]

You are Bad and Wrong. *grin*

[imc.livejournal.com]

…especially since "god-ZILL-a" is an amphibrach!

[taimatsu]

Absolutely. :)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

A double dactyl is a comic verse form made up of two quatrains, each line being made up of two dactyls except the fourth and eighth which are choriambs (and must rhyme with each other). The first line is generally a repetitious bit of nonsense, and the second line is someone's name.

I won't invent an example here because they're rather hard to construct ;-)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

AFAIK it's called "identity rhyme".

[taimatsu]

BINGO! Thank you *so* much. (For spectators, here is a page which explains identity and ambiguous rhyme, which seem to be what I'm after.)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Happy to help ;-) It makes a nice change thinking about poetry rather than tedious page layout, which is what I've been doing the rest of this afternoon...

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

Try anaphora (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphora).

[taimatsu]

That's at the starts of sentences, and this is definitely the ends of verse lines. It seems the term I'm after is 'identity rhyme'.