Holorime

Holorime (or holorhyme) is a form of rhyme in which the rhyme encompasses an entire line or phrase. A holorime may be a couplet or short poem made up entirely of homophonous verses.

Holorime in English

"In Ayrshire hill areas, a cruise, eh, lass?"

"Inertia, hilarious, accrues, hélas!"

—Miles Kington, "A Lowlands Holiday Ends in Enjoyable Inactivity".

"Poor old Dali loped with an amazin' raging cyst, as

poor Roald Dahl eloped with Anna-May's enraging sisters."

—the final line from an unpublished short story by translator Steven F. Smith about the attempts of Salvador Dali and Roald Dahl to woo a couple of American lasses.

Holorime in French

In French poetry, rime richissime ("very rich rhyme") is a rhyme of more than three phonemes. Holorime is an extreme example of rime richissime.

Gall, amant de la Reine, alla, tour magnanime!

Galamment de l'Arène à la Tour Magne, à Nîmes.

Gallus, the Queen's lover, went (a magnanimous gesture)

Gallantly from the Arena to the Great Tower, at Nîmes.

—Marc Monnier

A notable exponent of holorime in French was Alphonse Allais:

Par le bois du djinn, où s'entasse de l'effroi, By the woods of the djinn, where fear abounds,

Parle, bois du gin, ou cent tasses de lait froid. Talk, drink gin, or a hundred cups of cold milk.

Other examples

Main article: Homophonic transformation

Holorime may also refer to two phrases that sound the same but have different meanings. Most such holorimes come from music lyrics, such as "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky" and "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy." (See also Mondegreen)

See also

• Homophonic transformation
• Word play

External links

• Wordspy
• [1]
• 'A Hollow Rhyme' - by contemporary poet Ronberge