In the study of poetry's rhythm, a "masculine ending" describes a line that ends with a syllable that is stressed, or said with more force. A "feminine ending" is the opposite, describing a line that ends with a syllable that is unstressed, or said with less force. These terms come from patterns in the French language. When lines with masculine endings rhyme with other masculine endings, they create masculine rhymes. Similarly, lines with feminine endings rhyme with other feminine endings to create feminine rhymes. Poems often use patterns of masculine and feminine endings in their lines. The difference between masculine and feminine endings is separate from the difference between types of rhythmic units called metrical feet.

Description

In the study of poetry rhythm, a masculine ending is a line that ends with a syllable that is pronounced with emphasis. A feminine ending, also called a 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 pattern in French grammar. In French, words that belong to the feminine grammatical category often ended with a syllable that had no stress, while words in the masculine category ended with a syllable that had stress. This pattern was common in French many years ago. For example, the masculine word "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 end with a longer sound, while the second and fourth lines end with a shorter, stronger sound.

The syllables that create the longer ending are -bers, again -bers, -nest, and again -nest. The syllables that create the shorter, stronger ending are dream, seem, goal, and soul.

Rhyme

In English poetry, when words ending with a strong, stressed syllable are rhymed (like "dream" and "seem"), the rhyme is called a masculine rhyme (or single rhyme). Masculine rhymes are used most often in English poetry. For example, John Donne's poem "Lecture Upon the Shadow" uses only masculine rhymes.

When words ending with two syllables, where the second is unstressed, are rhymed, the result is called a feminine rhyme (or double rhyme). Shakespeare's "Sonnet 20" is an example where all fourteen lines end with feminine rhymes.

The unstressed syllables in a feminine rhyme are often the same (like "ed" in "uttered" and "muttered"), but they can also be different, such as "exp" and "str" in "expanding" and "stranding."

Feminine rhymes are uncommon in English because most words have only one syllable. However, the "-ing" ending adds an unstressed syllable, making feminine rhymes possible. For example, in Shakespeare's "Sonnet 20," the words "rolling," "trolling," and "doting" use the "-ing" ending to create feminine rhymes. The Hudibrastic style of poetry uses feminine rhymes for humor, and limericks often use unusual feminine rhymes for comedic effect. Irish writer Jonathan Swift also used many feminine rhymes in his poems.

In Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven," feminine rhymes are used as internal rhymes. For example, the words "uttered" and "muttered" form internal feminine rhymes with "fluttered."

In couplets and stanzas

Poems often organize their lines in certain patterns, such as masculine and feminine endings. For example, in "A Psalm of Life," cited above, each couplet has a feminine ending followed by a masculine one. This pattern is used by hymns classified as "87.87" in the standard naming system (for more information about this system, see Meter (hymn)); an example is John Newton's "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken":

Here is a German example from Goethe's verse:

Relation to verse feet

The difference between masculine and feminine endings is not related to the difference between iambic and trochaic feet. For example, the poems by Longfellow and Newton are written in trochaic tetrameter. Feminine endings appear in lines with eight syllables, ending with a complete trochaic foot. Masculine endings appear in lines with seven syllables, ending with a single-syllable foot. In contrast, the poem by Oliver Goldsmith is written in iambic tetrameter. Masculine endings appear in lines with eight syllables, while feminine endings include an extra, ninth syllable that is not part of the 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, four lines from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, written in iambic pentameter, show this. The first line has ten syllables and ends with a stressed syllable, which is a clear masculine ending. The last line has eleven syllables and ends with an unstressed syllable, which is a clear feminine ending. The second and third lines also have ten syllables but end with two unstressed syllables. These lines are structured similarly to masculine lines but do not end with a stressed syllable.

Tarlinskaja (2014) suggests that lines ending with two unstressed syllables, like "Demetrius" or "fawn on you," should be classified as masculine endings. Her example is the line "To sunder his that was thine enemy" from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. According to Tarlinskaja, the tenth syllable in masculine endings can be either stressed or unstressed.

Another possibility is an eleven-syllable line ending with two unstressed syllables. Such lines are very rare in actual poetry. Tarlinskaja states that the tenth syllable in feminine endings is always stressed.