Triple Rhyme
Quick answer: Triple rhyme matches three syllables, a stressed syllable plus two unstressed, as in glamorous and amorous. Learn why it dominates comic poetry.
Triple rhyme is rhyme extending over three syllables: a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones, all matching, as in 'glamorous' and 'amorous', 'tenderly' and 'slenderly', or 'comical' and 'astronomical'. It is the three-syllable member of the family that begins with masculine (one syllable) and feminine (two syllables) rhyme, and it is by far the showiest of the three.
That showiness fixes its character. Matching three syllables in English is hard, the reader can hear that it is hard, and so the rhyme draws attention to its own cleverness. This makes triple rhyme a natural for comic and satirical verse, and a hazard in serious poems, where the acrobatics tend to upstage the feeling.
How It Works
The stress sits on the third syllable from the end, and everything from that stress onward must chime. An invented couplet: 'She catalogued his virtues quite methodically, / then filed them under fiction, periodically.' The dactylic tumble at each line end ('-odically') is unmistakable; the ear registers both the match and the stunt of making it.
Because so few English words share three final syllables, poets often build triple rhymes from phrases, rhyming one long word against two or three small ones ('intellectual' with 'hen-pecked you all', in Byron's famous manner). At that point triple rhyme shades into mosaic rhyme, and the comedy doubles.
Where You Will See It
Byron's Don Juan is the treasury: stanza after stanza detonates on triple rhymes engineered for maximum irreverence. W. S. Gilbert's patter songs for the Savoy operas depend on them, as does much of Ogden Nash. Thomas Hood's 'The Bridge of Sighs' is the rare serious example, using triple rhymes ('tenderly', 'slenderly') for a drowned woman's elegy, and readers have argued ever since about whether the music mourns or jingles.
In contemporary culture, the true heirs are rap lyricists and musical-theatre writers, for whom multisyllabic rhyming is a core measure of craft.
How to Use It in Your Own Poems
For comic verse, triple rhyme is a main engine: put the setup word first, the absurd match second, and let the rhyme deliver the punchline's timing. Build a private list of three-syllable endings ('-erica', '-ability', '-ominous') and mine it. For serious verse, use it rarely and only when the falling triple rhythm suits the content, a lullaby or a lament with rocking movement.
If you test a comic poem in Writory's monthly contest, remember judges score emotion as well as language: the laughter needs something true under it, or the rhymes are fireworks over an empty field.
What poets can take from this
- Reserve triple rhyme mainly for comic, satiric or light verse, where its display is the point.
- Place the funnier or stranger member of the pair second for punchline timing.
- Build triple rhymes from phrases when single words run out; the patchwork adds wit.
- In serious poems, use the falling triple cadence only when the subject rocks or laments.
- Keep a running notebook of three-syllable word endings; stockpiles win this game.
Try it yourself
Write a comic character sketch of a self-important expert, three quatrains long, with a triple rhyme closing every second couplet. Make at least one triple rhyme by rhyming a single long word with a phrase of two or three short ones.
Questions
What is the difference between triple rhyme and feminine rhyme?
Feminine rhyme matches two syllables, a stressed plus one unstressed (turning/burning). Triple rhyme extends the match to three, a stressed plus two unstressed (comical/astronomical). Triple rhyme is rarer, louder and more comic in effect.
Can triple rhyme work in a serious poem?
Occasionally. Hood's 'The Bridge of Sighs' uses triple rhymes in an elegy, letting the falling rhythm act as a rocking lament. But the risk of unintended comedy is real, so most poets keep it for wit.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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