Eye Rhyme | Examples & Definition
An eye rhyme is the repetition of two or more words that are spelled almost identically yet pronounced differently, such as “alone” and “gone.” It is also called visual rhyme or sight rhyme. Poets use eye rhymes to appeal to our sense of sight by creating visual patterns, generating an interesting tension between what we see and what we hear.
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
—Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
Eye rhyme definition
An eye rhyme occurs when two words look like they should rhyme but do not. This happens because they are spelled similarly but pronounced differently. Some examples include:
- love and move
- laughter and daughter
- crown and mown
In each case, the words end with the same letters, creating visual unity for readers looking at the poem on paper. However, when read aloud, they do not produce the musical quality we typically expect from rhyming words.
Many of these eye rhymes can be found in early written English poetry as words were pronounced differently in the past. These are also known as historic rhymes. In the example above, the words “temperate” and “date” probably rhymed in Shakespeare’s time but no longer do due to shifts in pronunciation. This leads to “unintended” eye rhymes in modern reading.
Eye rhyme vs regular rhyme
Eye rhyme and regular rhyme (also called true rhyme or perfect rhyme) are distinct types of rhyme, each having a different effect:
- Regular rhyme involves words that end with the same sounds, like “mouse” and “spouse” or “light” and “bright.” When read aloud the result is pleasant to the ear, which is why this type of rhyme is common in poetry and songwriting.
- In contrast, eye rhyme involves words that only look similar on paper due to their spelling, like “wind” and “find” or “gone” and “done.” Eye rhyme is visually appealing but does not create matching sounds when spoken.
Eye rhyme examples
Below is a list of words that form eye rhymes.
- lose and rose
- cough and rough
- go and do
- card and ward
- alone and gone
- come and home
- break and freak
- flood and brood
- found and wound
- meat and threat
- dear and pear
Eye rhyme breaks the monotony and predictability of perfect rhyme, satisfying our visual pattern-seeking nature.
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!
The following poem demonstrates the discrepancy between English spelling and pronunciation: many words are spelled in a similar way but are pronounced differently, potentially forming eye rhymes.
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird
And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead—
For goodness sake don’t call it deed!
Frequently asked questions about eye rhyme
