The meaning behind the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme has long been a mystery, but some speculate that "Humpty Dumpty" may have been a cruel nickname for King Richard III, a 15th-century monarch who ...

Songs are made for ears, not eyes. Because people listen to songs, you learn to write for eyeless ears. Rhyme creates the ear’s roadmap through the lyric ideas. It tells your ear where to go next, ...

Rhyme thrives at both poles of literature. It is the material of a greeting card—“Roses are red / Violets are blue / Sugar is sweet / And so are you”—and the high-tragic language of Racine. Rhyme ...

Welcome to Part Two of our exploration and celebration of the use of rhyme in songs. The issue raised in Part One, whether songs require rhyme, and, if so, if they need to be perfect rhymes or not, is ...

Why do we appreciate rhyming words in songs and poetry? How long can one "hold" a sound while waiting for a rhyme? Rhythm and rhyme help us to remember things. They do this through acoustic encoding, ...