Half Rhyme

Half rhyme or slant rhyme, sometimes called near rhyme, or imperfect rhyme, is consonance on the final consonants of the words involved (e.g. ill with shell). Many half/slant rhymes are also [[eye rhymedate=January 2012}} In the following example the "rhymes" are on/moon and bodies/ladies:

When have I last looked on

The round green eyes and the long wavering bodies

Of the dark leopards of the moon?

All the wild witches, those most noble ladies

(Yeats, "Lines written in Dejection")

Moses ibn Ezra, 12th century Hebrew poet and poetry theoretician, terms the practice of poets to use half-rhyme "donkey-rhyming."

American poet Emily Dickinson also used half/slant rhyme frequently in her works. In her poem "Hope is the thing with feathers" the half/slant rhyme appears in the second and fourth lines. In the following example the "rhyme" is soul/all.

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all.