|prosody Compare masculine rhyme a rhyme between words in which
one, two, or more unstressed syllables follow a stressed one, as
in elation, nation or merrily, verily| |a fool or simpleton;
ninny.| |the offspring of a zebra and a donkey.| in poetry, a
rhyme involving two syllables (as in motion and ocean or willow
and billow). The term feminine rhyme is also sometimes applied
to triple rhymes, or rhymes involving three syllables (such as
exciting and inviting). Robert Browning alternates feminine and
masculine rhymes in his "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister": Gr-
r-r there go, my heart's abhorrence! Water your damned flower-
pots, do!If hate killed men, Brother Lawrence,God's blood, would
not mine kill you! What? your myrtle-bush wants trimming?Oh,
that rose has prior claims- Needs its leaden vase filled
brimming?Hell dry you up with flames! Learn more about feminine
rhyme with a free trial on Britannica.com.