Preface

Rhyme as a major form of sound parallelism is found widely in the verbal arts of the world. After becoming established in many different languages all over the world from early to late Middle Age periods, it appears in all kinds of poetries: those composed orally as well as by pen; poems memorized, improvised, sung, recited and read. In research, rhyme is abundantly addressed in literature studies, linguistic and metrical analyses, and recently, after the bloom of rhyme in rap lyrics, increasingly in studies of popular song. Song writers' manuals typically provide extended rhyme typologies. Individual rhymed oral traditions are documented extensively. However, explicit, comparative research on rhyme chiefly concerns written verse. Moreover, authority and appeal to the literary canon over a significant but limited historical period has sought to constrain what rhyme is, despite a previous history in which practices varied and the persistence throughout of several kinds of alternative aesthetics. This is still well-established in such value-laden terminology as pure vs. impure rhyme and perfect vs. imperfect rhyme.