Avoidance of rhyme

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Avoidance of rhyme

Postby Kythyria » Sun Sep 16, 2007 7:57 pm UTC

I deliberately reword things I say to prevent them rhyming, or alliterating. Both of those just bug me. I hate it when I encounter rhyme or alliteration in something someone else wrote as well.

What weird aversions of that sort do you have?
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Postby bbctol » Sun Sep 16, 2007 7:59 pm UTC

I love it when things rhyme, it happens all the time.
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Postby SpitValve » Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:30 pm UTC

Awesome alliteration always assists in something something. I give up.
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Postby RealGrouchy » Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:30 pm UTC

Whatever happened to that limerick I wrote for Tank....

Gimme a couple minutes

Edit: Here we go:

There once was a man from Kentucky,
Who was featured in a very bad limerick.
The limerick bombed,
And so did your mom,
Because the limerick didn't even follow proper meter or rhyming pattern.

- RG>
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Postby Infornographer » Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:15 pm UTC

I do not share that aversion to the magnitude you seem to express, but I do feel it. I think rhymes bother me mostly because people tend to overuse them, in the sense that many people sacrifice clarity for the sake of rhythm. I do not go out of my way to avoid it in spoken dialect, but noticing something rhyme always stops me for a split second.

I don't know if the scope of this topic extends into written word, but I also do not really enjoy ellipses (...). I think, like rhyme, people tend to overuse them when not really appropriate. It has gone from a signifier of omission to a contrived (and often poor) attempt at controlling the pace of prose and poetry.
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Postby Ketzerei » Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:18 pm UTC

Your Grouchiness, that was the funniest thing I've read in days. Thank you for making the world a better place yet again.
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Postby Rusty » Sun Sep 16, 2007 10:54 pm UTC

I'll often look for a synonym for a word if it makes a rhyme, unless the sentence also happens to have a really nice rhythm to it, in which case it stays and I see if I can extend it. I really like alliteration though, the tongue-twistier the better.

RealGrouchy wrote:Whatever happened to that limerick I wrote for Tank....

Gimme a couple minutes

Edit: Here we go:

There once was a man from Kentucky,
Who was featured in a very bad limerick.
The limerick bombed,
And so did your mom,
Because the limerick didn't even follow proper meter or rhyming pattern.

- RG>
That reminds me of my favourite love poem:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet,
But unfortunately I lack a certain poetic flair.
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Postby platypus01 » Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:21 am UTC

RealGrouchy wrote:There once was a man from Kentucky,
Who was featured in a very bad limerick.
The limerick bombed,
And so did your mom,
Because the limerick didn't even follow proper meter or rhyming pattern.

- RG>

weee, reminds me of ogden nash (i think thats the one... lol)

i love rhymes and alliterations and whatnot. one of the reasons i love reading poetry (reading, mind, not analyzing..). i also prefer rhyming translations of things like chaucer and other older texts. flows better for me. but im no expert on such translations.
bleh
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Postby pollywog » Thu Sep 20, 2007 10:21 am UTC

SpitValve wrote:Awesome alliteration always assists in something something. I give up.


Here, have this.
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Postby __Kit » Thu Sep 20, 2007 11:11 am UTC

Uhm, aren't alliterations always appreciated?
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Postby dp » Thu Sep 20, 2007 2:34 pm UTC

__Kit wrote:Uhm, aren't alliterations always appreciated?

I'm fairly sure that's not alliteration.
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Postby bbctol » Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:55 pm UTC

dp wrote:
__Kit wrote:Uhm, aren't alliterations always appreciated?

I'm fairly sure that's not alliteration.


In fact, it's assonance. Which is a great word, because it sounds naughty, but it isn't. Like "penal".

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Postby Kythyria » Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:16 pm UTC

Funnily enough, actual poetry is okay, it's just if I'm about to say it that alliteration or rhyme is irritating. In prose, both alliteration and rhyme tend to be a bit laboured, so it jars.

It just sounds wrong.
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Postby Daniel » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:24 pm UTC

I sometimes speak in partial rhyme when I get bored. And encourage other people to change serious pieces of work to promote rhyme... I got someone to rewrite the first paragraph of a creative writing piece full of internal rhyme... still don't know how it was received...
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Postby mrorange » Wed Sep 26, 2007 2:04 am UTC

it bothers me when people speak in rhyme intentionally because it usually just comes off as super cheesy. i love alliteration and assonance and consonance and all that stuff. its a blast trying to see the longest alliterative cohesive sentence you can write... in fact... possible thread topic?
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby Clumpy » Wed Sep 26, 2007 2:21 pm UTC

Kythyria wrote:I deliberately reword things I say to prevent them rhyming, or alliterating. Both of those just bug me. I hate it when I encounter rhyme or alliteration in something someone else wrote as well.


It all started when a poet strangled my parents. . .
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby Teshi » Fri Sep 28, 2007 11:15 am UTC

Awesome alliteration always assists in something something.


Alliteration always assists in adding awesome.
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby platypus01 » Sat Sep 29, 2007 12:25 am UTC

was just reminded of Alphabetical Africa. I forgot how I was first exposed to this book. Might've been my sophomore (high school) English teacher. He was (and is) awesome. And I'm still slightly disgruntled that I didn't get him this year. :cry:
bleh
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby Amicitia » Sat Sep 29, 2007 4:34 am UTC

Rime affects tone.
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Re:

Postby H.E.L.e.N. » Sat Sep 29, 2007 1:25 pm UTC

mrorange wrote:it bothers me when people speak in rhyme intentionally because it usually just comes off as super cheesy.


Agreed, most people are doing it wrong. The phrase "poet and don't know it" makes me want to hurt people.

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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby Rilian » Sat Sep 29, 2007 10:56 pm UTC

The only reason I can think of for to avoid alliteration and assonance or rhyme is that other people sometimes give you funny looks when you do it. I don't know why they do. But I've stopped caring about those funny looks. I just say what I need to say. People occasionally mention it. The whole ordeal passes in about 2 seconds.
And I'm -2.
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby Hench » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:32 am UTC

I personally have this irrational hate for rhyming. I don't know exactly why; it could be the fact that throughout my formative years in school I was constantly assaulted with poetry and forced to analyze it. I never liked poetry, and in fact still try to avoid it at all costs. Sometimes I do appreciate a clever rhyme done to be clever and not just for the rhyme's sake.

I love alliteration though. I try to use it more but I can never come up with the words to properly do it. Alas, my vernacular isn't large enough to simply grab words that start with similar sounds and make them into a coherent, if laborious, sentence. I suppose a thesaurus would help with that, but I always found it too much work to spend a lot of time finding the proper words. Damn my laziness!
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby genewitch » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:49 am UTC

Kythyria wrote:I deliberately reword things I say to prevent them rhyming, or alliterating. Both of those just bug me. I hate it when I encounter rhyme or alliteration in something someone else wrote as well.

What weird aversions of that sort do you have?


people who do it in a cheesy way bother me, personally (poet and didn't know it, as stated above)
I wish i could talk in meter on demand. i have a friend that can do non-rhyming meter whenever he wants, his favorite is Iambic Pentameter, and it sounds like he's almost making fun of rap. "what did you do today?" "i took a ride down to the store" and then i laugh.

Alliteration is cool, to me. Especially if you can pull it off because you have a large vocabulary.
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby koalabäh » Mon Oct 08, 2007 12:49 pm UTC

I usually replace "poet and didn't know it" with "poet and never noticed".
Witty and original rhymes are cool though.
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby jmce » Mon Oct 08, 2007 3:16 pm UTC

Call me clumsy and unsophisticated (or anything else you like, I can't hear you), but I like to add a bit of unforced alliteration into, say, blog posts. I hope it makes readers who notice it feel a little bit of extra love. :roll:
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Re:

Postby 1337geek » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:43 pm UTC

Rusty wrote:
RealGrouchy wrote:Whatever happened to that limerick I wrote for Tank....

Gimme a couple minutes

Edit: Here we go:

There once was a man from Kentucky,
Who was featured in a very bad limerick.
The limerick bombed,
And so did your mom,
Because the limerick didn't even follow proper meter or rhyming pattern.

- RG>
That reminds me of my favourite love poem:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet,
But unfortunately I lack a certain poetic flair.


These both remind me of one of my favorite poems:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Most poems rhyme
But this one doesn't
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby evilbeanfiend » Mon Oct 08, 2007 4:56 pm UTC

reminds me of the poems they had on up pompeii - will see if i can find one
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby Ari » Tue Oct 09, 2007 11:47 am UTC

Don't avoid every chance to rhyme.
Just pad them nicely.
So they don't run up against each other all the time. :)
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby genewitch » Tue Oct 09, 2007 4:06 pm UTC

just out of curiosity, is it hard to not rhyme on purpose?
I mean there's a lot of words you can end a sentence with that have a ton of rhymes...

Wouldn't avoiding rhymes sometimes make your speech sound awkward?

also do you swear if you rhyme on accident?

"i'm gunna pay my tab and then take a cab... FUCK!"
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby Alpha Omicron » Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:30 pm UTC

I don't mind rhymes, but alliteration bugs me. It seems so pre-school.
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby gmalivuk » Tue Oct 09, 2007 5:52 pm UTC

Alpha Omicron wrote:I don't mind rhymes, but alliteration bugs me. It seems so pre-school.

I think, with either rhymes or alliteration, the annoyingness depends on how much work went into making it so. The occasional accidental rhyme or alliteration never bothers me much, but if the words or syntax you use are unusual enough to suggest you did it on purpose, then I think it's generally stupid, at least in prose.

To put it elsewise:
What's wrong with words with similar sounding syllables?
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby Nimz » Wed Oct 10, 2007 12:58 am UTC

gmalivuk wrote:
Alpha Omicron wrote:I don't mind rhymes, but alliteration bugs me. It seems so pre-school.

I think, with either rhymes or alliteration, the annoyingness depends on how much work went into making it so. The occasional accidental rhyme or alliteration never bothers me much, but if the words or syntax you use are unusual enough to suggest you did it on purpose, then I think it's generally stupid, at least in prose.

To put it elsewise:
What's wrong with words with similar sounding syllables?

In the context of prose, accidental rhymes and alliterations are just fine. The trick to purposefully doing it without being blatant is to make it seem accidental or effortless. :twisted: I occasionally add rhymes or alliterations to serious writing as a means of emphasising the rhymed or alliterated portion. If I can't make it flow naturally, I won't force it in unnaturally.
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Re: Avoidance of rhyme

Postby Number3Pencils » Wed Oct 10, 2007 4:00 am UTC

We once bought new silverware that came in a box with a clear plastic sleeve on it that you could slide off. The box said, "Slowly slide sleeve sideways to feel fantastic flatware finish."

The finish didn't live up to the alliteration.
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