Customer Reviews

The Complete Rhyming Dictionary: Including The Poet's Craft Book

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(7)
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2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Every poet needs have three essential tools: 1) a great dictionary, 2) a great thesaurus, and 3) this rhyming dictionary. True, the phonetic format takes some getting used to. True, some of the comments Wood makes in the introduction are condescending and downright insufferable. But the dictionary itself is the most comprehensive one on the market. And the breakdown of words into one, two, and three-syllable formats will save you a lot of time. I also love the fact that the words are listed one per line. That makes navigating the word jungle much less stressful. Oh, and by the way, buy yourself a hardback copy right off the bat. It will save you money in the long run compared to buying the paperback edition over and over again every time you wear it out. Songwriters . . . this means you, too!

Being a lyricist (ck. home.earthlink.net/~paulkruger), I've been using Wood's Unabridged Rhyming Dictionary for so many years the book has begun to fall aprt. (Never realized till a few weeks ago, the edition I have was published in 1943.) It was time to replace it. Or so I thought.
Clement Wood's genius was to divide each section so that you could see at a glance words which have the same sound (e.g., approved, improved, reproved, etc.) and, therefore, were not true rhymes. So what does this appallingly dreadful edition do? They list all words alphabetically regardless of sound!
No wonder one of the editors is named Bogus.

Finding rhymes by phonetics is something you will appreciate in time, and it really isn't all that hard, even for foreigners like myself. The book is large, well-structured, and has a lot of what we are all looking for: Rhymes. Unfortunately, the rhymes are US English rhymes, which for the UK English speaker (and some Canadians) means:

1. Wrong phonetics for some words. Try as you might with your British ear, "fire" is not where it's supposed to be.
2. Some words are listed as rhymes that simply don't rhyme in UK English.
3. Some UK English rhymes are listed as non-rhymes, like "forge" and "gorge".

But this is of course a problem with all US made rhyming dictionaries. If you are a US buyer, there is no reason for you not to buy the book.

The pros may not agree but as a novice lyricist, having never written a song in my life until I began work on my current project, I found this book to be the best of the bunch. I own four others. This one is the most used. The others? Well, they just sit on the shelf collecting dust.

This dictionary is an incredible tool for any writer. Whenever you need just that right rhyming solution in a piece you are writing, this will help you. A dictionary of this sort is a bold undertaking for anyone to compile, and my hat is off to the man who put this reference together. I have looked at other attempts at this concept, but I have found this to be the most useful of all. I do not think there is a better reference on the market in this catagory. This should be an absolute must for anyone in the writing profession to have in their reference library.

In _The Poet's Craft Book_ that begins this edition, we're treated to an absurd dissertation on why 'north' and 'forth' don't rhyme. In the rhyming dictionary, you won't find 'north' and 'forth' as rhymes either. You will find 'gone' rhymed with 'John' and not with 'dawn.' I don't know what dialect of English the editor speaks, but it isn't mine, and it isn't standard American broadcast English, either. It wouldn't be quite so annoying without the preposterous hautiness of the section on incorrect rhymes in _The Poet's Craft Book_--while the dictionary rhymes 'miniature' and 'moor.'

First off - it is printed on paper, that looks and feels like old newsprint. I was looking for an easy to use dictionary much like the Webster one. I write songs and have been doing so for over 40 years. The rhymes are not separated by the number of syllables BUT by alphabetical order. Why? I use a rhyming dictionary to look up a new word rhyme, not look up a word that I already know. The worst part for me is that the dictionary lists the words in a phonetic format which means the words don't look like they do when printed. So you have to learn phonetics - that means you have to learn all the special little codes that are used to describe phonetics. That can take a few hours I guess. I have never met someone that uses this book. I bought it because I like to keep up with my craft and it is cheap enough to investigate. I really hate to give a negative review but here it is. I will say that if you already know phonetics and all the special coding they use in this book, and you want to learn about the craft of poetry, you may get something out of this book.

For a person who limits rhyming to only perfect rhyme (example: say and day,) The Complete Rhyming Dictionary is too complicated and complete for them. These rhymers should really purchase an alphabetized volume of rhymes.

Wood's book is arranged by vowel sound, not alphabet. If a reader looks up the sound----long "a" as in the word day-----, he will see words such as say, day, lay, may etc. But what if none of these perfect word rhymes fit sensibly into a poem that you were working on? A rhymer might need to deviate slightly off from these 'perfects', still get good rhyme, and make sense within their poem. Wood's work makes this approach easy. All a reader has to do is look at columns next to the long "a" sound and find a multitude of other words to work with. For instance, the word "day" is close in rhyme to "afraid". A poem writer can use these two words which are definitely not perfect rhyme, but close enough. This close-enough approach is used especially in song lyric writing. When sung the "d" in afraid is hardly noticeable. A listener of music will only really hear the long "a" sound and think it is perfect rhyme.

This book contains rhyming lists of great depth. As an older poet and writer, I find it is very useful because I have forgotten some of the words I need and find new ones I can use. Gene Miller

Here it is in a nutshell: if, for your purposes, "fidgety," "fiery" and "flattery" rhyme well enough, or "vine" with "wolverine," then this is the book for you. (I even found "pleasure" rhymed with "around," but let's assume that was a mistake.) On the other hand, if your work demands perfect rhyme, then wading through all these off-rhymes in search of a true one will be frustrating and annoying. I write books for children, and most kids want their rhymes perfect. The earlier version of Clement Wood, which seems to be out of print, was much, much better for careful rhymers. This edition, as revised by Ronald Bogus, should be titled The Complete Near-Rhyming Dictionary. Suitable for some purposes perhaps, but for the rest of us-- yikes!