Tolkien remarked, with typical accuracy,
That "alliterative" cannot be allowed: as although
Some would mark always the same sound by the same symbol
(As in those who have us sing hymns
Rhyming "love" with "move" with "strove"
Preferring to write with the eye than the ear
(Per Yeats' phrase)) the infelicitous for some
Orthography of English alone belies this
An abuse of language, at best;
And besides the deceptive conventions of spelling
That see me rhyming "deceptive" with "besides,"
And forgetting any confusion caused by
Reckoning rhyme by the syllables rather than
Words, polysyllabic words particularly presenting
A dissociation of the two (For example, that line
Does not rhyme. None
Of its stresses start with a "P" sound.);
We must still deal with the vowels, who demand
To be grouped all together, so that we get
Each vowel rhyming with any other—
Some alliteration, that has so little to do with the littera!
To this, which from the title you can tell
I have already a rather prosaic and neat
"Solution," I shall not lucubrate much longer
But let it suffice full to note the fraternal
Partner in the pair: French rhyme,
Which labels those harmonies at the ends of lines,
Not attaching importance but as signs,
Just as in our English rhymes,
To either the letters used; or the name
French, merely marking by means
Of origin the distinction of the techniques defined.
(One tempting intensifying idea is
To specify the change with spelling:
Rime, here rather similar to reckon-ing,
Once meant the account or calculation
Of, in its case, words and sound.
Both the object and the spelling each
Became more French with the creeping
Advance of francophile attitudes.
Bridges had a beautiful way of putting it:
Rime has had a long reign, and still
flourishes, and it is in English one
of the chief metrical factors.
Like a low-born upstart
it has even sought to establish its kinship
with the ancient family of rythym
by incorporating the aristocratic
h and y into its name.
(His point is that rhythym preceeds rhyme.)
Surprising semimetrical form aside,
We should not deduce any definite
Correlation between the two spellings
And the two types of metrical symmetry;
Besides which, in speech the spellings are sounded
Identically, of course, and this can't
Be a firm basis for distinction—
Rime/rhyme is a fine affectation
But no more than an ornamental device.)