Mind rhyme

Mind rhyme is a kind of substitution rhyme similar to rhyming slang, but it is less codified. In mind rhyme, an intended word remains unsaid, and is “heard” only in the listener’s mind. For instance, in this traditional example: ""Roses are red and ready for plucking / She’s sixteen and ready for high school.""

The text initiates a possible rhyme which is completed by the reader or listener. Unlike rhyming slang, where the discipline of lexicography is possible (e.g., “dogs” or “dog’s meat” has traditionally signified “feet”, in a multitude of contexts ), mind rhyme is a one-off. In no other linguistic situation than in this immediate example will “high school” mean “fucking.”

Another example, in the context of cheerleading: ""Raa Raa REE! Kick 'em in the knee! / Raa Raa RASS! Kick 'em in the other knee!""

Often mind rhyme is used to circumvent a taboo and, if anything objectionable is communicated, it occurs with the complicity of the listener. It adds a phonemic dimension to uses of double entendre. This taboo avoidance game with the listener has been described as "teasing rhyme". Such teasing rhymes have been popular since the 17th century. Alan Bold described the 20th century anonymous bawdy poem about the "young man of Brighton Pier" as "perhaps the finest of the teasing-rhyme variety of bawdy poem". An extract will illustrate the technique:


 * One very hot day in the summer last year
 * A young man was seen swimming round Brighton Pier;
 * He dived underneath it and swam to a rock
 * And amused all the ladies by shaking his
 * Fist at a copper who stood on the shore,
 * The very same copper who copped him before.
 * For the policeman to order him out was a farce,
 * For the cheeky young man simply showed him his
 * Graceful manoeuvres and wonderful pace...

Though fairly rare in canonical literature, examples of mind rhyme can be found in the work of William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Marianne Moore and others. In Lewis Carroll's 'Tis the Voice of the Lobster it is generally assumed that the last words of the interrupted poem could be supplied by the reader as "— eating the Owl".