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01680--broken rhyme


broken rhyme is the splitting of a word at the end of a verse line, to allow a rhyme on a syllable other than the final one, which is transferred to the following line. It is a liberty taken for comic effect in light verse, and more rarely used in serious works. Hopkins employed it frequently: the first line of The Windhover' ends with the first syllable of 'king/dom' to rhyme with 'wing' in line four.