In the study of poetry structure, called prosody, lines of verse can end with a stressed syllable or an unstressed syllable. A line ending with a stressed syllable is called a masculine ending, while a line ending with an unstressed syllable is called a feminine ending. These terms come from patterns in the French language. When lines with masculine endings rhyme together, they create masculine rhymes. Similarly, lines with feminine endings create feminine rhymes. Poems often use patterns of masculine and feminine endings in their lines. The way endings are classified as masculine or feminine is separate from how metrical feet are categorized in poetry.
Description
In the study of how poems are structured, a masculine ending is a line that ends with a syllable pronounced with more emphasis. A feminine or weak ending is a line that ends with a syllable that is not emphasized.
Etymology
The terms "masculine ending" and "feminine ending" are not connected to ideas about masculinity or femininity in culture. Instead, they come from a rule in French grammar. In French, words that are classified as feminine in grammar often ended with a syllable that was not stressed, while words classified as masculine usually ended with a stressed syllable. This pattern was common in French many years ago. For example, the masculine form "petit" (meaning "small") had stress on its final syllable, while the feminine form "petite" had a syllable with no stress (a sound called a schwa, which is not usually pronounced today).
Example
The first two stanzas of "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow are shown below. In each stanza, the first and third lines have a feminine ending, and the second and fourth lines have a masculine ending.
Tell me not, in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream!— For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou art, to dust returnest, Was not spoken of the soul.
The final unstressed syllables, creating feminine endings, are -bers, again -bers, -nest, and again -nest. The final stressed syllables, creating masculine endings, are dream, seem, goal, and soul.
Rhyme
When words that end with a strong, single sound are rhymed (such as "dream" and "seem"), the result is called a masculine rhyme (or single rhyme). In English poetry, most rhymes are masculine. John Donne's poem "Lecture Upon the Shadow" uses only masculine rhymes.
When words that end with two syllables are rhymed, the result is called a feminine rhyme (or double rhyme). Shakespeare's "Sonnet 20" is an example of feminine rhymes because all fourteen lines end with two syllables.
A woman's face with nature's own hand painted,
Hast thou, the master mistress of my passion;
A woman's gentle heart, but not acquainted
With shifting change, as is false women's fashion.
An eye more bright than theirs, less false in rolling,
Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth;
A man in hue, all hues in his controlling,
Which steals men’s eyes and women’s souls amazeth.
And for a woman wert thou first created,
Till nature as she wrought thee fell a-doting,
And by addition me of thee defeated
By adding one thing to my purpose nothing.
But since she prick'd thee out for women's pleasure,
Mine be thy love and thy love's use their treasure.
pain-ted pas-sion qua-in-ted fash-ion roll-ing gaz-eth con-troll-ing ma- zeth at-ed dot-ing de-feat-ed noth-ing plea-sure trea-sure
The rhyme scheme is: A B A B C D C D E F E F G G.
Feminine rhymes often include extra syllables that are not stressed. These syllables may be the same, like "expanding" and "stranding," or they may be different, like "expanding" and "stranding."
Feminine rhymes are uncommon in English, which uses mostly single-syllable words. However, the -ing ending adds an extra unstressed syllable, making feminine rhymes possible. For example, in Shakespeare's sonnet, the words "rolling," "trolling," and "doting" use the -ing ending to create feminine rhymes. The Hudibrastic poem uses feminine rhymes for humor, and limericks often use unusual feminine rhymes for comedy. Irish writer Jonathan Swift used many feminine rhymes in his poetry.
Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" uses feminine rhymes as internal rhymes. For example, the words "uttered" and "muttered" rhyme with "fluttered" inside the same line.
In couplets and stanzas
Poems often organize their lines using patterns of masculine and feminine endings. For example, in "A Psalm of Life," each pair of lines follows a pattern where a feminine ending is followed by a masculine one. This same pattern is used in hymns classified as "87.87" in a standard system (for more about this system, see Meter (hymn)). An example is John Newton's "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken":
Here is an example from Goethe's poetry:
Relation to verse feet
The difference between masculine and feminine endings is not connected to whether a poem uses iambic or trochaic feet. For example, the poems by Longfellow and Newton are written in trochaic tetrameter. In these poems, feminine endings appear in lines with eight syllables, ending with a full trochaic foot. Masculine endings appear in lines with seven syllables, ending with a single-syllable foot. In contrast, a poem by Oliver Goldsmith is written in iambic tetrameter. Here, masculine endings appear in lines with eight syllables, while feminine endings include an extra, ninth syllable that is not part of the main meter.
In unrhymed verse, some lines end with two unstressed syllables but still have the same number of syllables as lines with clear masculine endings. For example, in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written in iambic pentameter:
HELENA: And even for that do I love you the more. I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius, The more you beat me, I will fawn on you. Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
The first line has ten syllables and ends with a stressed syllable (more), which is a clear masculine ending. The last line has eleven syllables and ends with an unstressed syllable (me), which is a clear feminine ending. The second and third lines also have ten syllables but end with two unstressed syllables (-tri-us, on you). These lines match the structure of masculine lines in syllable count but do not end with a stressed syllable.
Tarlinskaja (2014) suggests that lines like "Demetrius" or "fawn on you" should be classified as masculine endings, even if the tenth syllable is unstressed. She uses the example "To sunder his that was thine enemy" from Romeo and Juliet to support this. For Tarlinskaja, the tenth syllable in masculine endings can be either stressed or unstressed.
Another possibility exists: an eleven-syllable line ending with two unstressed syllables. These lines are very rare in actual poetry. Tarlinskaja states that in feminine endings, the tenth syllable is always stressed.