In the study of poetry structure, a "masculine ending" describes a line that ends with a syllable that is stressed, or has strong emphasis. A "feminine ending" refers to a line that ends with a syllable that is not stressed. 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 that rhyme with other feminine endings 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 how a poem's rhythm is divided into parts.

Description

In the study of poetry's rhythm and structure, a masculine ending is a line that ends with a syllable pronounced with more emphasis. A feminine ending, also called a weak ending, is a line that ends with a syllable pronounced with less emphasis.

Etymology

The terms "masculine ending" and "feminine ending" are not connected to ideas about masculinity or femininity in culture. Instead, they come from a grammatical pattern in French. In French, words that are classified as feminine in grammar often ended with an unstressed syllable, while words classified as masculine 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 an unstressed syllable ending in a schwa sound (a type of vowel that is no longer typically pronounced in modern French).

Example

Below are the first two stanzas of "A Psalm of Life" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In each stanza, the first and third lines have a feminine ending, and the second and fourth lines have a masculine one.

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 stressless syllables, which create feminine endings, are -bers, again -bers, -nest, and again -nest. The final stressed syllables, which create masculine endings, are dream, seem, goal, and soul.

Rhyme

In English poetry, rhymes are categorized based on how words end. When words that end with a strong, single syllable sound are rhymed, such as "dream" and "seem," the result is called a masculine rhyme (or single rhyme). Most rhymes in English poetry are masculine. For example, John Donne's poem "Lecture Upon the Shadow" uses only masculine rhymes throughout.

When words that end with a soft, two-syllable sound are rhymed, the result is called a feminine rhyme (or double rhyme). Shakespeare's "Sonnet 20" is an unusual example of feminine rhymes because all fourteen lines end with this type of rhyme. Here is an excerpt from the poem:

"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…"

The unstressed syllables in a feminine rhyme often share the same sound, such as "painted" and "passion," but they can also have different sounds, like "expanding" and "stranding."

Feminine rhymes are uncommon in English, which is a language with mostly single-syllable words. However, the suffix "-ing" adds an 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 comedic effect. Irish writer Jonathan Swift also used many feminine rhymes in his poetry.

Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" includes feminine rhymes as internal rhymes, meaning they appear within a line. 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 strong and weak endings. For example, in the poem "A Psalm of Life," each pair of lines follows a pattern where the first line ends with a weak ending and the second with a strong one. This same pattern is used in hymns classified as "87.87" in standard naming systems (for this system see Meter (hymn)); an example is John Newton's hymn "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken."

Here is an example from a German poem by Goethe:

Relation to verse feet

The way lines in poetry end with stressed or unstressed syllables (called masculine or feminine endings) is not connected to whether the poem uses iambic or trochaic rhythm. For example, poems by Longfellow and Newton use trochaic tetrameter, a rhythm with stressed syllables followed by unstressed ones. In these poems, feminine endings appear in lines with eight syllables that end with a full trochaic foot. Masculine endings appear in lines with seven syllables that end with a single, short syllable. In contrast, a poem by Oliver Goldsmith uses iambic tetrameter, a rhythm with unstressed syllables followed by stressed ones. In this poem, masculine endings occur in lines with eight syllables, while feminine endings occur in lines with nine syllables, including an extra, unstressed syllable.

In unrhymed poetry, 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 (a rhythm with five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables), the line "And even for that do I love you the more" has ten syllables and ends with a stressed syllable ("more"), which is a clear masculine ending. Another line, "Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me," has eleven syllables and ends with two unstressed syllables ("me"), which is a clear feminine ending. The second and third lines in this example also have ten syllables but end with two unstressed syllables ("tri-us," "on you"). These lines match the structure of masculine lines 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 an example from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: "To sunder his that was thine enemy." 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 in feminine endings, the tenth syllable is always stressed.