I appreciate you bringing this up, Peter. I also have many questions about slant rhyme and "looser" meter, probably since I come from a more free verse background.
I have an awful time, especially, with slant rhyme. Someone will tell me that my slant rhyme is awful (speak/shriek was particularly disliked), but no one ever explains why. They just refer me to other poems/examples, and I'm not seeing the difference between good and bad. I love Duffy's poem. To me, she goes farther afield than I would with rhyme (board/bird). I tend to try to stay close to the vowel sound and play around with the consonants. I rarely shift the vowel (like Duffy) -- yet I like this poem and have no criticism of her rhyme choices.
Are there general guidelines for slant rhyme? The only one I've heard is that you can't have just one example of slant rhyme in a poem because then it looks like a mistake rather than a crafted choice. Anyone have more information or opinions?
Another great example, in my opinion, is Nemo's "Sonnet for Bill" that was in March's issue of Poetry. I keep studying that one. I like what he does with rhyme, though I couldn't articulate why his slant rhymes work -- it just seems right.
Any insights on this topic would be appreciated.
Marybeth
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