Abstract
Abstract: Rhyme in verse, by limiting verbal choices according to what a language can provide, reduces the degree of rational control over discourse. The reduction increases with the number of repetitions. This is probably why, in the age of Alexander Pope, triplet variants of the dominant heroic couplet were frowned upon. However, in the earlier Restoration period, John Dryden and John Wilmot, second Earl of Rochester, used triplets fairly frequently in their couplet poems. This article examines the triplet in Rochester's tightly controlled decasyllabic verse, where it registers not only climax and excess, but also a loosening of control that admits undertones of rage, outrage, and irrationality.
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