Masculine and Feminine Rhyme

Masculine rhyme is what you probably think of when you imagine a standard rhyme. In a masculine rhyme, the final syllable in a line matches the final syllable of the preceding line. Usually, this rhyming syllable is stressed, as in the following examples from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock:"

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky

Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;

By contrast, feminine rhyme is a multi-syllabic rhyme that usually ends on an unstressed syllable. There are several feminine rhymes in "Prufrock" as well:

Oh, do not ask, "What is it?"
Let us go and make out visit.

Smoothed by long fingers,
Asleep... tired... or it malingers,

There is nothing inherently masculine or feminine about these types of rhyme (the terminology comes from the gendered nouns in Latin and French), but poets know this terminology and often play with the idea that feminine rhymes are associated with femininity. For instance, Shakespeare often makes a point of using feminine rhyme when he portrays or discusses models of femininity (or alternately, when he wants to question a male character's masculinity). Note this example from Sonnet 20, in which all the rhymes are feminine (as Shakespeare would have pronounced them anyway... some of the rhymes don't quite work with 21st-century American accents):

A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted

Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion;

A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted

With shifting change, as is false women's fashion;

An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,

Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;

A man in hue, all 'hues' in his controlling,

Much steals men's eyes and women's souls amazeth.

And for a woman wert thou first created;

Till Nature, as she wrought thee, fell a-doting,

And by addition me of thee defeated,

By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.

But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,

Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.

In the English language, feminine rhyme is also associated with light or comic verse. Note how the feminine rhyme that begins Jonathan Swift's "Description of a City Shower," sets the tone for the rest of the poem:

Careful observers may foretell the hour
(By sure prognostics) when to dread a shower:
While rain depends, the pensive cat gives o'er
Her frolics, and pursues her tail no more.
Returning home at night, you'll find the sink
Strike your offended sense with double stink.
If you be wise, then go not far to dine,
You spend in coach-hire more than save in wine.
A coming shower your shooting corns presage,
Old aches throb, your hollow tooth will rage.
Sauntering in coffee-house is Dulman seen;
He damns the climate, and complains of spleen.

Both masculine and feminine rhymes can be deployed with a wide variety of effects, but noticing what type of rhyme a poet uses can often help you to figure out a poet's attitude toward his or her subject.