There is hardly a language that has no rhymes, although each language has its own criteria for rhyming.
In English, rhymes call for identical vowel sounds at the end of two lines. Thus, children play the game of:
You say a word,
Perhaps just a bird.
I’ll say a rhyming one,
And we’ll have fun.
In French, rhyming words should also have the same consonant, like droit and doit. In German, where a variety of vowel combinations sound similar, rhyming is much more flexible. Thus, Brüder could rhyme with wieder. Spanish calls for identical stresses (accents) on the rhyming words, like hombre and hambre. Likewise, similar tone quality is required in Chinese rhymes. They say that Polish poetry is rich in rhymes, as are poetic works in Arabic and Persian. In Sanskrit, rhymes may be on the first, second or last syllable. In Tamil, alliteration is more popular, as is rhyming in the second consonant. A professor of classics once told me that there was little rhyming in ancient Greek poetry. All this tells us how varied humanity’s cultures and aesthetic sensitivities are. It is far more enriching to stress on these than on our conflicting differences. Of course, animals like horses, dogs and sheep invariably produce rhyming sounds.
I have often felt something soothing and mildly entertaining in rhymes. In my view,
Thoughts sound nicer if sometimes
They are expressed in old-fashioned rhymes.
To illustrate this, let us consider some simple facts or statements:
Astrophysics says the sun will lose its brightness a few billion years from now.
We use the mind for some things, and the heart (metaphorically) for other things.
There was a time when nations were often opposed to one another. In the future, things may be different.
We feel sorry for someone who once had power and fame but has now fallen from grace.
What one says and does may be forgotten, but not what one has written.
The origin of our consciousness is still unknown.
Rather than reject religions, it may be better to reform them.
There is more to history than records of what happened when.
We should look upon all cultures in positive ways.
No matter what facts are, truths are our interpretations of them.
All these may also be expressed as simple rhyming couplets:
1.The sun will be dark some distant day.
That is what astrophysicists say.
2.Mind is for play; its antics are toys.
Heart is for love: and for all such joys.
3.Once there were two: just East and just West.
What is to come may still be the best.
4.Pity the man who had wealth and fame
Which, having lost, is condemned to shame.
5.Spoken words and deeds will fade away.
Words written down(like these) will for long stay.
6.We are like leaves on a sturdy tree
Whose roots seem to be in deep mystery.
7.Reject not religions of the past.
Change them and make them to longer last.
8.History is not events and dates.
It is peoples’ fortunes and their fates.
9. Humanity’s cultures, one might say,
Are like flowers in a grand bouquet.
10.Facts are what there seem to be.
Truths are how they seem to me.
Though rhymes are rhythmic, they have little to do with poetry where meters matter more. There is a lot of great poetry in English without rhymes. On the other hand, the Persian poet Ferdowsi’ s Shahnameh has some 50,000 rhyming couplets.
Spurts of Thought 