Nirodbaran

Correspondence with Sri Aurobindo

Second Series

2. Art and Literature

Imperfect Rhymes

How do you rhyme “life” and “cliff”, “smile” and “will”, “came” and “whim”. Are they all whims?

They are called in English imperfect rhymes and can be freely but not too freely used. Only you have to understand the approximations and kinships of vowel sounds in English, otherwise you will produce illegitimate children like “splendour” and “wonder” which is not a rhyme but an assonance.

19.12.1935