Re: rhyme in sonnet

On 27 Nov 2006 09:17:20 -0800, "Stefano MAC:GREGOR"
<esperantujo@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

dicaduca wrote:

This is the beginning of Shakespeare's first sonnet. How do b-lines rhyme?
/dai/ /memorai/ or /di:/ /memori/
Thanks for helping....

From fairest creatures we desire increase, a
That thereby beauty's rose might never die, b
But as the riper should by time decease, a
His tender heir might bear his memory b

Obvoiusly, Shakespeare went to the county recorder and obtained a
poetic license. Licensed poets are allowed to do "near rhymes" like
this.

But aren't sonnets supposed to have a rhyming scheme of ABBA, ABBA,
CDCDCD?

From Edward FitzGerald's translation (1859) of the _Rubáiyát_ of Omar
Khayyám (whose stanzas, as a rule, rhyme AABA):

"Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai
Whose Doorways are alternate Night and Day,
How Sultán after Sultán with his Pomp
Abode his Hour or two, and went his way."

I had always thought that "caravanserai", a borrowing from Persian,
was supposed to be pronounced as "caravan-suh-rye", and that one
should never confuse this with French verb forms like "je danserai".
However, I did eventually find one dictionary (a Random House
Unabridged) that allowed the final syllable to rhyme with "day". In
fact, there is evidence that FitzGerald may have pronounced the first
syllable of "Naishápúr" (Omar's birthplace in Persia) like "nay".
This vowel is, after all, the pronunciation of the diphthong "ai" in
modern Persian.

Of course, "caravanserai" also exists in an Anglicized variant,
"caravansary", with "-ary" pronounced as in "anniversary": this form
is perhaps more common in American English.

daniel mcgrath
--
Daniel Gerard McGrath, a/k/a "Govende":
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Developmentally disabled;
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