Versification
Slant rhyme
Slant rhyme is a rhyme in which the sounds coincide only partially, with deviations in the consonants or vowels after the stress (for example, "worm — swarm", "eyes — light"). Slant rhymes — assonant, consonant, approximate — lend the verse a modern, unconstrained sound and expand the poet's lexical space, freeing them from the search for rare exact consonances. The active use of slant rhyme is characteristic of the modern and contemporary poetry of the 20th–21st centuries, which renounced classical perfection for the sake of a more expressive, more individual intonation. Slant rhyme is not a sign of unskilfulness: deliberately applied, it becomes a powerful stylistic device that diversifies the sound texture of a work.
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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.
