Masculine rhyme

A masculine rhyme, in English prosody, is a rhyme on a single stressed syllable at the end of a line of poetry. This term is interchangeable with single rhyme, and is often used contrastively with the terms "feminine rhyme" and "double rhyme."

In English-language poetry, especially serious verse, masculine rhymes comprise a majority of all rhymes. John Donne's poem "Lecture Upon the Shadow" is one of many that utilise exclusively masculine rhyme:

Stand still, and I will read to thee

A lecture, love, in Love's philosophy.

  These three hours that we have spent

  Walking here, two shadows went

Along with us, which we ourselves produced.

But now the sun is just above our head,

  We do those shadows tread,

  And to brave clearness all things are reduced.

See also

• Feminine rhyme

External links

• Guide to Verse Forms