To "Slant" or Not to "Slant," That is the Question...

You’ve interjected that use of “slant rhyme”

is just excuse for those who “can’t rhyme”’

yet I will disagree

for I like subtlety

it pleases me more than your “rant” rhyme

 

While you say that tight rhyme is the best

and so clearly you’ve voiced your protest

the way that I see it

both are exquisite

a choice that the writer elects.

 

Poets Dickinson, Shakespeare and Yeats

who have rose to the realm of the greats

in their words we will find

a choice of slant rhyme

and that is but just a small taste

 

I truly mean no disrespect

yet please, if I may interject

that tight rhyme of course

is just fine if not forced

I prefer my own rhyme less direct.

© Ginny Brannan 2022

I follow a prolific writer of limericks in another state, who has the fine ability to share humor, politics, and daily life all in the format of a 5 line limerick. I am no Limerick writer, but I came across one of her recent limericks that had strong opinion on exact rhyme vs. slant, in part saying using slant "just means that you can't rhyme".  I have my own strong opinions on this, so here is my reply. Perhaps you can find the slant rhymes that I've interspersed in it.

For those who wonder what slant is, it is a more subtle form of rhyme that sounds like a word but is not exact, ie one of the more famous, Emily Dickinson's "Hope", the slant here is "soul" and "all." Not exact rhyme, but I can't imagine a more perfect poem!