I kind of like “love, pride, deep-fried chicken”: the things that are essential, from the noble to the everyday. The rhyme I can’t defend. 
On a postcard from Og (reportedly):
On the shores of Lake Michigan
I bit into a Whitefishigan.
You mean enjambment?
Regarding a previous comment, doctors often say “um-bil-EYE-cull.” Dunno how common it is otherwise.
I’ll call your Texas and raise you an abdomen:
Oh Jonah, he lived in de whale,
Oh Jonah, he lived in de whale -
Fo’ he made his home in
Dat fish’s abdomen -
Oh Jonah, he lived in de whale.
Also, it seems there is no two syllable word synonymous with ‘whale’ which, for the writer’s purposes, becomes a fish.
I agree. I think this lyric is good, if you know who Gentleman Jim is, and you know who the song is about.
This is an old vice among bad poets and rhymers. See Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope, 1711.
Where-e’er you find the cooling Western Breeze,
In the next Line, it whispers thro’ the Trees;
Upon hearing the XTC song, I thought it might be a British pronunciation, similar to ur-EYE-nal.
“Betty Davis Eyes”, anyone?
She’s precautious,
And she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush
…
She’ll let you take her home,
It works her appetite
She’ll lay you on the throne,
Nice try, but it doesn’t rhyme.
…
- She’s ferocious
And she knows just
What it takes to make a pro blush*
:dubious:
It may be a native pronunciation somewhere, but not for Partridge, how acknowledges that it’s a forced rhyme.
Not that it makes the unbelievably forced rhyme much better, but that word is “precocious.”
The Sex Pistols, “Anarchy in the UK”:
I am an Antichrist!
And I am an anarchist!
…and Johnny Rotten totally makes it rhyme, but mangling the last “i” of anarchist. :dubious:
What’s wrong with this? I actually usually prefer the sorts of near rhymes to hard monosyllabic masculine rhymes. Certainly sounds less cheesy that way.
One that really bugs me when I hear it one the radio: Evanescence My Immortal…
“When you cried I’d wipe away all of your tears
When you’d scream I’d fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years”
What? Couldn’t work in “beers”? “Arrears?” Not even “steers”?
How about “musketeers”?
“When you cried I’d wipe away all of your tears
When you’d scream I’d fight away all of your fears
And I held your hand through all of these years
And then I went
ropin’ steeeeeeeers”
I like it.
Actually, a forced rhyme can work quite nicely:
All brilliant rhymes.
or
The one that always bugs me (I’ve posted it here before) is from U2’s “Beautiful Day”:
You thought you’d found a friend
To take you out of this place
Someone you could lend…
A hand
In return for grace
Just one more of many reasons I can’t stand the guy.
This is the second example like this. Are you complaining about enjambment? In other words, your complaint is that the rhyme is not end stopped?
Precisely. Makes it sound like extremely lazy writing.
I disagree. The use of enjambment in lyrics and poetry keeps the rhythms of the line smooth and natural, and allow rhyme not to hit you over the head. Similiarly, slant rhyming (pointed out in some cases above) allows the writer to include more naturalistic and surprising words as rhymes while still having some of the effect of rhyme.
In some cases, slants might be used out of laziness. Enjambment rarely is, as most people find it much easier to write end-stopped lines than enjambed ones.