Rímes

Rímes are the repetition of similar sounds at the ends of lines in poetry, forming a patterned correspondence that shapes musicality and structure. While the term is often associated with Romance-language traditions, the concept appears in many languages and literary traditions. Rímes can occur at the end of lines (end rhymes) or within lines (internal rhymes), and they may involve consonants, vowels, or both.

Classification typically distinguishes consonant (perfect) rhymes, where the final stressed vowel and following consonants match, from assonant (vowel) rhymes, where only the vowel sounds match. Further distinctions include masculine rhymes, ending with a stressed syllable, and feminine rhymes, ending with an unstressed syllable or an extra syllable. Slant or partial rhymes cover near matches, such as similar consonants or vowels.

Rhyme schemes describe how a poem's rhymes recur across lines or stanzas, using letters to mark matching endings (for example ABAB or AABB). Rímes influence pacing and emphasis and have been central to many poetic forms, from sonnets and villanelles to ballads, though modern poetry often favors free verse with limited or no end rhymes.

In practice, rímes arise from a language's sound system and its orthographic conventions, and they interact with meter and stanza structure. Tools such as rhyme dictionaries and metrical grammars assist poets and translators, especially when rendering verse into another language with different phonological patterns.