[ChrisW]

[Oh look at this: a completely virgin board (not to be confused with a bored virgin) -- I must instantly mar its purity].

Dear Poet Lariat,

About a month ago, I posted an Italian sonnet in which I rhymed division/decision/collision/one. Many of my critics objected to this on the grounds that 'one' rhymes a completely unaccented syllable rather than one with primary or secondary stress.
I was aware that this meant my rhyme would be an off-rhyme -- i.e., a rhyme that falls short of full normative rhyme. But first, I was inclined to think it a rather old form of off-rhyme: Marlowe's Passionate Shepherd rhymes sing/May morning, for instance. Second, I wanted a sort of dissonance in the final line of my octave (to call into question the ideal of love elaborated in the octave).
I'm curious whether the introduction of one off-rhyme after 7 lines of true-rhyming must look inept.
Or is it the fact that I was writing a sonnet that made an off-rhyme seem inappropriate?
Or is it that this sort of off-rhyme seems worse than an off-rhyme that rhymes stressed syllables (for example: fission/dish)?
Or is it something I haven't even considered?
Can't off-rhyme be used to produce a kind of dissonance which serves meaning?

--Bemused in Boston
[My apologies for jumping onto this board before the explanation was posted. Thanks for not ruling me off the board,Tim [for your "patient stet") -- and for answering the question too!]

[This message has been edited by ChrisW (edited April 19, 2001).]