good rhyming words

Subject: good rhyming words
From: Andy7
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 05:53 AM

I think the best rhyming word for songs (and poems) must be the word 'again'.

It can be pronounced (in southern England, at least) either as 'agenn' or 'agayn'; and the 'enn' and 'ayn' endings both include lots of useful, common words.

Added to which, the word 'again' is itself a common and versatile word, which is easy to include in a song.

Any other candidates for good rhyming words?

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Raedwulf
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 07:42 AM

Squilver. Hirple.

There are 3 words in the English language for which there are no rhymes (allegedly). I can do nothing about orange, but I can save the others.

"Hirple" is a word that Kipling used. It gives you a rhyme with purple. Then there's "Squilver". Hereon hangs a tale... ;-)

Once upon a time, many years ago... (Alas, definitely in my time, since I was there; therefore in the time of many of you) There is an event known as FATE - Festival At The Edge. The Edge in question being Wenlock Edge in Shropshire. Cutting out some verbiage, 'twas there I met the gorgeous & also completely wonderful Val Littlehales (also Gene Tudor who, I am sure, many of you know). I explained that I'd been on a minibus trip up & around Long Mynd, At one point we passed a road sign (a couple of years later, I passed it myself when it was just me driving around) which read as "The Bog Squilver"!

It was on two lines:
The Bog
Squilver

Two separate places. But at that point in my tale, Val exclaimed "I was born in The Bog!" And then realised what she'd just said... :) It ought to be a story or a song, oughtn't it? "The Bog Squilver"...

It isn't, but thus I give you two good rhyming words - good because how otherwise would you rhyme them? Hirple for purple; Squilver to match silver. Can't do anything as regards orange...

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 08:35 AM

There is a vitamin supplement brand called Haliborange, which I believe is a perfect rhyme for orange!

Disclaimer: I am not recommending this brand, just pointing out its existence!

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Raedwulf
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 12:11 PM

It isn't a rhyme though, is it? Again is not a rhyme for again. It's just the same word repeated...

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 01:33 PM

where would Irish song be without Cork and New York?

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,Sol
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 04:45 PM

I hear there's a place in Wales called Blorenge that is looking for a word that will rhyme with itself.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,Andy7
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 05:04 PM

Actually, ‘haliborange’ does rhyme with ‘orange’, just as ‘bale’ rhymes with ‘ale’.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Joe_F
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 05:08 PM

"The Bold Soldier" has it both ways:

Then he took her to the church, and of course home again.
There they met her father and seven armed men.

"Let us fly!" said the maiden. "I fear we shall be slain."
"Hold my horse," said the soldier. "Never fear again."

I dare say that adds to the fun.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 06:46 PM

There's a line in the song by "Scotland the What", since you're talking of oranges, the song being "Our Glens" extolling the virtues of guid Scottish malts:
Glenglassoch, Glen Lossie, Glendullan Glenmorangie
I prefer them to Cointreau which I find far too orangey.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 31 Mar 18 - 09:34 PM

There use to be a department store in London called Gorringes, but it's gone now.

Myself I think there's no point in worrying too much about full rhymes. Near rhymes, and often pretty far rhymes can serve just as well. Getting a perfect rhyme can involve using words that come across as very artificial, clearly brought in just to make a rhyme. That's ok when you're writing a funny song, where that's part of the humour, but it’s dodgy in a serious song.

One trick which can help you get away with a slightly outré word is to stick that in first, with the standard word coming in as the rhyme, rather than the other way.

Another trick can be to get a rhyme by ending a line with the right vowel, and starting the next with the right consonants that when spoken or sung together they give you the required rhyme.

And of course you can pretty well always rewrite a line so that it ends with an easier word for a rhyme.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 01 Apr 18 - 12:27 AM

What you want to achieve is not related to rhymes.


Your Poem, Man . . .
by Edward Lueders
(1923-2010)



unless there's one thing seen

suddenly against another--a parsnip

sprouting for a President, or

hailstones melting in an ashtray--

nothing really happens. It takes

surprise and wild connections,

doesn't it? A walrus chewing

on a ballpoint pen. Two blue tail-

lights on Tyrannosaurus Rex. Green

cheese teeth. Maybe what we wanted

least. Or most. Some unexpected

pleats. Words that never knew

each other till right now. Plug us

into the wrong socket and see

what blows--or what lights up.

Try

untried
     circuitry,

new
     fuses.


Tell it like it never really was,

man,

and maybe we can see it

like it is.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle


first Sunday after the first full moon, after the sun crosses the equater.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Mr Red
Date: 01 Apr 18 - 01:28 AM

there is a mountain - well a big hill really - near Abergavenny called the Bloringe, and a surname which I encountered when in Malvern - Doringe, and another which might be derivative Goringe.

And if we are stretching things for comedic effect more orange becomes oringer which rhymes with porringer (wot u neffer herd of 1?)

and arrange can be mangled to fit! (or did I mean arranged?)

Then agenn - in the Francis Stillman rhyming dictionary it offered blancmange - which is good in American English!


answering the OP - anything ending in tion/sion has a plethora of possibilities.

IMNSHO it depends on the context, bad rhymes can be funny, eye and near rhymes don't always jar. Take Carol King's

Just call out my name and you know wherever I am

the music and sentiment just make it perfect. Just!

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 01 Apr 18 - 05:08 PM

orangery - could that be rhymed with something?

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 01 Apr 18 - 07:08 PM

Surely name and am are not ‘bad rhymes’ at all, but rather an example of consonance, ie. words that do rhyme, but in their consonants rather than their vowel sounds. Another example would be:
In the warm hold of your loving mind.....ah, but I may as well try and catch the wind.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Apr 18 - 07:44 PM

Communicate -FIRST

Even "the Master" was more consumed with meter than vowel sounds.O

https://947freshfm.radio.com/blogs/joe-hyer/what-are-most-awkward-rhymes-modern-music-history

..........

Pecular....so many OF the BBC

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,Captain Swing
Date: 01 Apr 18 - 08:39 PM

I should think I'm not the first to have noticed that two great songs, "Dirty Old Town" by Ewan MacColl and "America" by Paul Simon do not contain rhymes and yet "Nothing Rhymed" by Gilbert O'Sullivan does contain rhymes.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Mike in Brunswick
Date: 02 Apr 18 - 12:33 AM

I put the following in the Perfect Couplet thread but didn't emphasize the "rhymes with orange" aspect.

From Dave Carter's The River, Where She Sleeps

Professor come to burst my bubble,
says that girl is bound for trouble
Serves me solace in a paper cup
But it looks a bit like agent orange
and when he leaves he slams the door and just
about that time she phones me up.

Mike

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Andy7
Date: 02 Apr 18 - 02:15 AM

"orangery - could that be rhymed with something?"

How about Tom an' Jerry?

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,SpellPolice
Date: 02 Apr 18 - 11:10 PM

GARGOYLE: your funky feint smallfont has a typo—equatOr, dude

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 03 Apr 18 - 05:07 AM

The OP pointed out that "again" offers two possibilities, 'agenn' or 'agayn'. Sadly I very often hear a singer use the wrong one. I put it down to failure to engage brain.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 03 Apr 18 - 05:50 AM

Tom Lehrer might say that "ability" is a good rhyming word:

An awful debility
A lessened utility
A loss of mobility
Is a strong possibility

In all probability
I'll lose my virility
And you your fertility
And desirability

And this liability
Of total sterility
Will lead to hostility
And a sense of futility

So let's act with agility
While we still have facility
For we'll soon reach senility
And lose the ability.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Mooh
Date: 03 Apr 18 - 07:27 AM

Matrimony, acrimony, alimony, usually in that order.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 03 Apr 18 - 07:35 AM

Don't get hung up on "perfect" rhymes.
For example, Bob Dylan is probably considered the greatest lyricist in modern times but in the first verse of his classic "Blowin' in the Wind" he rhymes "man" with "sand".

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Apr 18 - 12:34 PM

Gargoyle tinfoil
and, what Tunesmith said about perfect rhyme, but despite the Nobel, I would temper the superlative: one of the greats, absolutely; ~est? More possible than probable.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Andy7
Date: 03 Apr 18 - 02:05 PM

Certainly it would be difficult for me to consider Dylan the greatest lyricist of modern times, as I rate my own lyrics above his! ;-)

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 03 Apr 18 - 03:44 PM

Kipling had a very open mind when it came to rhymes.

I left my cap in a public-house, my boots in the public road,
And Lord knows where, and I don't care, my belt and my tunic goed

If it's good enough for Rudyard, it's good enough for me :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 03 Apr 18 - 04:05 PM

It’s very easy to be precious about perfect clean rhymes, but the sung word is often different to written word, so it is more about sounds that rhyme rather than spellings that chime (sorry). When I first heard the following song I thought the rhymes were a bit lazy, but actually they work perfectly well when sung in a laid back drawl, plus however you pronounce the word “again”, it rhymes with one of the earlier lines:
I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain
I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought I’d see you again.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Andy7
Date: 03 Apr 18 - 04:53 PM

One thing that I find grates a bit is names of people that conveniently rhyme. For example:

"Well how do you do, young Willie McBride?
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?"

"They say she even married once, a man named Romany Brown,
But even a gypsy caravan was too much settling down."

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Mr Red
Date: 03 Apr 18 - 05:23 PM

"man" with "sand".

assonance. a perfectly good technique. It is less punchy than a full rhyme. You have to take it in context. It can be clunky in the wrong hands.

road goed - gawd that was a ruddy-hard rhyme. But they ain't gonna tek yer seriously with that technique. It is played fer laffs innit?

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 03 Apr 18 - 06:22 PM

I always thought these were dodgy rhymes, but yes the first is assonance and the second one just tongue in cheek:

I’m thinking and a wondering all way down the road
I once loved a woman, a child I am told

It’s too late for turning in your light, Babe
The light I never knowed
It’s too late for turning on your light, Babe,
I’m on the dark side of the road.

As for Willie McBride, I thought that was actually a genuine name from a war grave, albeit a great one for rhyming possibilities.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Andy7
Date: 03 Apr 18 - 06:44 PM

Yes, 'McBride' was apparently the name of more than one real person who very sadly died in the horror that was the First World War.

But it still seems to me a little bit wrong, to pick out that name for a song, just because it happens to rhyme with 'graveside'.

Why not pick the name of another fallen soldier at random, and write the song slightly differently?

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,Kristoffer Ross
Date: 03 Apr 18 - 07:04 PM

Hi, Andy,
    Although this was obviously not intended by Eric Bogle, I try to draw a parallel in introductions between Arthur and Willie MacBride. Yes, they were from far different times, but both had the same possible fate: a death on the Green Fields of France. The times haven't changed as much as we like to think sometimes.
    ~Kristoffer

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 04 Apr 18 - 06:52 AM

Of course you could do like Arthur Conley and end every line with "Y' all"

:D tG

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 04 Apr 18 - 10:55 AM

Never mind finding obscure proper nouns to rhyme with 'orange'.
What's wrong with 'lozenge'?

Both, as I say them, rhyme with hinge, whinge & minge!

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: BobL
Date: 04 Apr 18 - 11:48 AM

Why not pick the name of another fallen soldier at random, and write the song slightly differently?

If your randomly chosen name had an appropriate rhyme, you'd still be in the same boat. For all we know, perhaps Pte. McBride was just such a random soldier.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 04 Apr 18 - 12:08 PM

Lozenge is a good one, because it’s a feminine rhyme (two syllables), but hinge, whinge, etc. do not qualify since they are male rhymes (monosyllabic). I suppose you could have a sore minge, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: The Sandman
Date: 04 Apr 18 - 12:18 PM

Kipling had a very open mind when it came to rhymes."was it his diet? too many cake?

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Jos
Date: 04 Apr 18 - 02:35 PM

Jerry, So "door hinge" would count as a rhyme for "orange"?

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Andy7
Date: 04 Apr 18 - 02:52 PM

"Jerry, So "door hinge" would count as a rhyme for "orange"?"

Nice one! With a dropped 'h' - "door 'inge" - it's a perfect rhyme for 'orange'!

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 04 Apr 18 - 04:16 PM

Yes, it would count, and I did think of that one after I posted, not that you’ll believe that. Dropping the h is even better though, because it makes it two short syllables. Now let’s see if we can nail a rhyme for purple.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST,Jerry
Date: 04 Apr 18 - 04:54 PM

OK, hirple works, but as a Scottish dialect word it doesn’t mean much to other people, and sounds more like a tactical manoeuvre in a Liverpool brawl. Whirlpool, maybe?

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Andy7
Date: 04 Apr 18 - 05:07 PM

chirp'll (chirp will) ... burp'll (burp will) ...

Not much use at all for poems or lyrics, though!

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 05 Apr 18 - 04:43 AM

Rhyming 'orange' with 'Haliorange' is a bit of a cheat.
Haliborange tablets take their name from 'Orange' anyway.
They are Halibut liver oil capsules flavoured with orange.

A good way for giving children fish oil without the accompanying taste of fish oil.
Back in my childhood they were a great improvement on 'cod liver oil' capsules.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Raedwulf
Date: 05 Apr 18 - 03:47 PM

As I said before, Nigel, I don't regard Haliborange as a rhyme for orange. Then again, I have issues with several of the proposed rhymes for various given above, including your suggestions for orange. I don't know what precisely the theoretical basis of a rhyme is (and right now, I can't be bothered to look for one), but for me, it must one that works spoken, rhythmically & syllabically.

Kipling's 'goed / road' works. It wasn't that he had an open mind when it came to rhymes (although he most certainly did); he had an open mind when it came to language. He often wrote colloquially in stories & poems, attempting (for purely artisitic purposes) to represent the speech of those he was presenting. So 'goed' is not grammatically correct (we say 'went'), but it is, linguistically, a valid past particple of 'go'. And it's a single syllable rhyme.

Orange is a two syllable rhyme - 'or-inj'. So whinge, hinge & minge are all faulty because they are only one, and 'loz-inj' fails because 'loz' doesn't match 'or'. I have a couple of rhyming dikkers somewhere (the gods alone know where!). At least one of them is not merely arranged by rhyme but by number of syllables in the rhyme. Stable rhymes with table rhymes with Mabel rhymes with Babel. "In the Tower of Babel, Mabel was stable on the table." But she wasn't eatable. Eatable is a two syllable rhyme & the rhythm of it is wrong.

Apologies to any ladies who may be foolish (or ghoulish! But not ghoulash) enough to be reading this but,

In the Tower of Babel, Mabel was stable on the table.
She was eatable & she was beatable; in the end, she was undefeatable."

Is exceedingly bad impromptu poetry! But each line rhymes internally (eat - beat - feat on the second), without ever remotely rhyming with each other, despite the apparent similarity in table / stable.

Anyway, Andy is being his usual Provocateur (no, secateur is not a rhyme!) self. He did not define 'good'. You might take 'good' as being a word that has rhymes aplenty, twenty or more... Or you might think a word which rhymes with only one other; job done, brother! Not sure why so many of you have chosen to get hung up on orange... ;-)

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Apr 18 - 04:48 PM

The mountain in South Wales called The Blorenge has a name that rhymes with orange. I was up there one day in 1979 showing some sixth-formers the depth of a layer of blanket peat that was 11000 years old. I did it by plunging my walking stick into the layer. If anyone finds a ferrule buried five feet down in peat on The Blorenge, it's mine.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Andy7
Date: 05 Apr 18 - 04:50 PM

Yes, I agree, we shouldn't get too hung up on finding rhymes for 'orange'. I've never yet felt the need to use the word 'orange' at the end of a line in a lyric or poem!

By 'good' rhyming words, I meant words that are themselves useful for poems/lyrics.

As a negative example, 'anti-inflammatory', having a very specific meaning and being difficult to rhyme, is a pretty useless rhyming word, unless used for comic effect in a lighthearted poem.

Whereas 'again' is a versatile word which rhymes with many other common - and also versatile - words.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Raedwulf
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 04:17 AM

Sorry, Andy. My fault, which I have attempted to correct! ;-) Incidentally (and let's please make this the last orinj!), unless I've missed one... Yes, Blorenge & Gorringe both rhyme (two syllables & blor- gor- or- all match), but also both are Proper Nouns i.e. names spelt with an initial capital. I think the point of what I read many years back is that there are no regular words that rhyme with purple, orange or silver.

Hmmmm... I've just realised - all colours. Coincidence?! I think not!! ;-)

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Mr Red
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 05:15 AM

Nice one! With a dropped 'h' - "door 'inge" - it's a perfect rhyme for 'orange'!

not perfect. door rhymes with awe. The O in orange is assonant with Oh (with a glottle stop).

imperfect rhymes a fine for comic effect, but need more care for anything serious. If it sticks out too much, it distracts from the sentiment.

I'm sure Cole Porter new this well. He loved enjambed rhymes, it puts the flow back in.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Jos
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 06:24 AM

"door 'inge" works better in some accents than others. I think some well known person brought the subject to the public's attention (Les Barker? Billy Connolly?), which is why people keep trying to find one. Proper nouns such as place names are useful for limericks - 'There was a young lady from Blorenge ...'.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Raedwulf
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 06:55 AM

Jos - the temptation to descend into the gutter...

There was a young lady named Gorringe*
Whose favourite fruit was an orange
Though she squeezed & she squeezed,
Though she wheezed & she wheezed,
And I'm not finishing this but you can bet it was 'minge'!! **

*Blorenge being a mountain rather than a place!

** My favourite limerick ever (with appropriate implied pauses):

There was a young lady from Bude
Who went for a swim...
...in the pond
A man in a punt
Stuck his pole in...
...the water
And said "You can't swim here, it's private!"

P.S. Good grief, folkies! No more oranges!! It's not the only fruit. If you want to discuss rhymes, at least think apples & pears... ;-)

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 07:06 AM

Raedwulf, you made my day! For some reason I never happened to hear this one and no, I did go to school:)
My colleagues and I sometimes get to rhyming all the nonsense we can get with, when our magnifiscent reviews on edubirdie.com get rejected but I can't remember any right now. Have to write them down next time.

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 08:14 AM

Leave Bude out of this.

Steve (in Bude)

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Raedwulf
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 08:18 AM

Why should I, Nu, sorry, Bude Steve? You stick yer oar in everywhere else, yer Scouse (or was it Manky? I've forgotten again...) git! ;-)

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Snuffy
Date: 06 Apr 18 - 05:11 PM

I remember this c-rime from the 60s

There was an old man of Dundee
Who was stung on the knee by a wasp
When asked if it hurt
He said "no, not at all
It can do it again, if it wants"

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 07 Apr 18 - 06:03 AM

Another version is

There was an old man of Dundee
Who was stung on the (arm?) by a wasp
When asked "Does it hurt?"
He said "No it don't
I'm glad it wasn't a hornet"

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Mr Red
Date: 08 Apr 18 - 03:38 AM

If you want to discuss rhymes, at least think apples & pears...

grapples & tears?

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 08 Apr 18 - 07:18 AM

Cruise fuse Jews muse loose booze !!!

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: oldhippie
Date: 09 Apr 18 - 06:53 PM

i was far away, so far
when i heard what she had done
but it was not my star
laid out on the horizon
only half have the nerve
only half have the heart
only half get what they deserve
out on that boulevard

Jack Hardy

Subject: RE: good rhyming words
From: Mr Red
Date: 11 Apr 18 - 10:55 AM

Keep young and beautiful, it's you duty to be beautiful
Keep young and beautiful, if you want to be loved.

In the wrong hands that would be clunky, but it generates its own rhythm, and the song was supposed to be light and fluffy. Jobs a good'n.