“Hope” and “shape.” “Moon” and “stone.” “Soul” and “all.” A slant rhyme is a rhyme with a close but not exact correspondence of sounds. It is also called a near rhyme, off rhyme, or half rhyme.

Slant rhyme became popular in modern poetry because it sounds less forced than perfect rhyme. Emily Dickinson used it extensively, pairing “room” with “storm” and “time” with “tune.” W.B. Yeats, Wilfred Owen, and rappers use it too. In rap, slant rhymes are everywhere, allowing flexible word choices without losing the rhythmic effect. Slant rhyme can create a sense of unease or incompleteness. It suggests that things do not quite fit, which can be exactly the point. A perfect rhyme closes a couplet. A slant rhyme leaves it slightly open. That openness is often more interesting.

Examples

• Hope/shape
• Moon/stone
• Soul/all
• Room/storm