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A Midsummer Night's Dream

by William Shakespeare

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Student Question

What are examples of internal rhyme in Act 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream?

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In Act 1, Scene 1 of A Midsummer Night's Dream, internal rhyme is used effectively. An example is in Helena's speech: "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; / And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind," where "mind" and "blind" rhyme internally. Another instance is Helena's line: "Call you me fair? that fair again unsay. / Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!" where "fair" rhymes internally with itself and "air."

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Internal rhyme occurs when, in lines of poetry, middle words rhyme with end lines. Internal rhyme, also called middle rhyme, can occur in the same line of poetry in which a middle word rhymes with an end word. The editors of Literary Devices: Definition and Examples of Literary Terms give us the following example of a single line with internal rhyme: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary" ("Internal Rhyme"). Or, internal rhyme can occur in separate lines in which two or more words in the middle rhyme with each other while also rhyming with an end word, as seen in the following example:

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. ("Internal Rhyme")

We see a couple of internal rhymes in act 1, scene 1...

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of Shakespeare'sA Midsummer Night's Dream. We see an example of internal rhyme in Helena's long speech at the very end of the scene in which she philosophizes about the irrationality and blindness of love:

Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind:
Nor hath Love's mind of any judgement taste. (233-35)

Here, the word "mind" in the middle of line 235 rhymes with "blind" at the end of  234, creating an internal rhyme.

However, what Shakespeare also often does is create internal rhyme using identical rhyme. Identical rhyme occurs when the poet rhymes two identical words ("Glossary of Rhymes," Arizona State University). One example of an internal rhyme being created using an identical rhyme can be seen when Helena expresses her jealousy of Hermia's beauty, just prior to her closing speech:

Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.
Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!
Your eyes are lode-stars; your tongue's sweet air. (180-183)

Here, in lines 181 and 182, the two identical words "fair" rhyme with the identical end word "fair," also found in line 182, creating an identical internal rhyme. In addition, all of the middle words "fair" rhyme with the end word "air," creating another internal rhyme.

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