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What to do when a workshopper says your words don't rhyme

For limerick writing, we are looking for perfect rhymes. There is a certain degree of latitude that may be allowed for small rhyming flaws, but everything else about a limerick must be working before you can expect any leeway.

A useful definition of perfect rhyme (from an article that used to be hosted on about.com):

"...in perfect rhyme or exact rhyme, the words begin with different consonant sounds, then have identical stressed vowel sounds, with any other following sounds also being identical."

feckless doesn't rhyme with gormless

To rhyme, the words must sound the same from the last stressed vowel sound to the end of the word. It's not enough to have only the last syllables rhyming (unless the last syllable happens to be the stressed vowel sound).

The e in gormless is not the last stressed vowel sound; or is. From that or onwards the sounds must be the same. Gormless rhymes with formless.

But to me they sound like they rhyme!

If you find two words that you think have a perfect rhyme but a workshopper doesn't, you might have to think about accents. A word with an accent on the last syllable doesn't rhyme with a word that has the accent on the second-to-last syllable, even if the spelling of the words is identical for the last two syllables.

Check some of the online dictionaries that provide an audio link. Find out what the pronunciation keys mean (and most of the dictionaries have a different way to denote pronunciation). For example, in Merriam-Webster's dictionary:

'gorm-l&s. The ' and the & have special meanings within the dictionary. See the Pronunciation Guide.

For more details on limerick guidelines see Standards & Guidelines for Workshopping.

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