Versification
Exact rhyme
Exact rhyme is a rhyme in which all the sounds from the last stressed vowel to the end of the word coincide (for example, "bright — light"). The exactness of consonance concerns pronunciation first of all, not spelling, and so it is the phonetic rather than orthographic identity of the endings that matters. Exact rhymes lend the verse sonority, completeness and classical harmony; they were especially prized by the Neoclassical school with its cult of perfect form. The search for a fresh, unexpected yet exact rhyme is considered a mark of high versification skill, since banal consonances devalue the utterance. Exact rhyme is opposed to slant rhyme, where the coincidence of sounds is only partial.
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Distinction
Two rhymes by degree of consonance. In an exact rhyme ALL sounds coincide from the last stressed vowel, giving a sonorous, complete, classically harmonious sound prized by the Neoclassicists. In a slant rhyme the coincidence is PARTIAL, with deviations in consonants or vowels, lending a modern, unconstrained sound and expanding the poet's lexical space. Deliberate inexactness is not a flaw but a device.
