Rhyming with Itself

Binky: People think I can't write a poem,
But they are so wrong, I CAN write a poem.
I wrote this one, I wrote this poem,
And I gave it the title "Binky's Poem".

So SHUT UP! The end!

Muffy: That's not a poem. He rhymed "poem" with "poem" four times!

— Arthur, "I'm a Poet"

This is when a songwriter or poet rhymes a word with itself or another homophone. Sometimes this is just the easiest way to match the rhyming scheme. Sometimes, this is used to be clever, by showing the different meaning one word can have in different contexts, e.g. rhyming "rare" (meaning uncommon) with "rare" (meaning undercooked). And in some cases, it's just done for the sake of comedy (perhaps during an Awkward Poetry Reading).

While a repeated rhyme isn't generally as cringe-worthy as its sister trope, the Painful Rhyme (except in Hip-Hop, where rhyming something with itself is considered the mark of a talentless rapper), it can still cause a listener to pause and wonder what just happened. It's worth mentioning that English is a fairly difficult language to rhyme in, compared with, say, French or Spanish. Nonetheless, you'll generally get a pass if the penultimate syllables rhyme while the last ones repeat - say, "smelt it" with "dealt it", and a less successful pass if you repeat only the "A" of an ABAB rhyming scheme (For example, "Take a look at my girlfriend / She's the only one I got / Not much of a girlfriend / I never seem to get a lot").

Of course, this technique, called an Identity in English Major speak, can have a deliberate aural or meaningful effect in higher-level readings, as with any other thing the author can fit in there (a good example would be "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe). Good rule of thumb, if the poet who uses this trope has a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry or a Nobel Prize in Literature, it's likely that it's intentional.

If the repeated rhymes are of exact same word, instead of a compound and the end of that compound, like "seasick" and "sick", and are right after the other, then it's also Epiphora.

Note that this trope doesn't apply to a repetitive chorus, a.k.a. Looped Lyrics, in which the same line is repeated over and over again.

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Examples

Advertising

• The '90s Bagel Bites jingle is based on The McGuire Sisters' "Sugartime":
  Pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at suppertime
  When pizza's on a bagel, you can eat pizza anytime
• The jingle for Education Connection (basically an online directory of colleges) does this right from the beginning:
  Feels like my life's passing me by
  With the cash I'm making, I'll never get by
• Not exactly rhyming with itself, but the Chicken of the Sea jingle rhymes homonyms:
  Ask any mermaid you happen to see
  What's the best tuna? Chicken Of the Sea!
• The Chuck E. Cheese's jingle "Follow Me To Fun" contains these lines:
  Pick your partner, pick your game.
  Every token plays one game.

Comedy

• Brian Posehn in Metal By Numbers:
  We're coming to the end of the first verse
  Then comes the breakdown, a pretty chorus and then the second verse
  I know I just rhymed "verse" with "verse"
  That's because I'm so metal, bitch, where's your fucking purse?

Fan Works

• In the Homestuck parody rock opera The Baby is You, Bro threatens to "show the power of 'Forbidden Rhyme', words that rhyme with themselves" during his monologue.
• In Erika Writes a Poem, Erika rhymes her own name with itself. Iona calls her on this, and points out that she had previously rhymed her sister's name with her mother's, despite that "Momoka" rhymes better with "Erika" than "Sakura".
• Hard Reset has Twilight failing at a metaphor. Her excuse?
  When I try to turn a phrase it usually ends up in an impossible, non-euclidean shape. I’ve always been that way. In fact a former tutor of mine, during a moment of frustration after I tried to rhyme the word “pony” with itself four times in a single stanza, once told me he was revoking my poetic license.
• The player-created lyrics to the Ode to Booze in Kingdom of Loathing end by rhyming "weak" with "week". In his recording, KoL's creator Jick quipped that the rhyme was, indeed, "pretty weak".

Films — Animated

• During Frozen we have this line in "Let it Go":
  Don't let them know.
  Well now they know!
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame, when the gargoyles are encouraging Quasimodo:
  She will discover, guy
  You're one heck of a guy
• In the theme song to the animated film Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Bowling for Soup rhyme "time" with "time" (in the chorus lyrics "We've got to save the Earth and get to school on time/So many things to do and not much time!") three separate times.
• The Swan Princess:
  • The opening song rhymes "seasick" and "be sick".
  • The sequel has the song "That's What You Do for a Friend" which rhymes "friend" with "friend" over and over.
• The cast of Shrek had a version of "Twelve Days of Christmas" that goes "My true love gave to me / a fire-breathing dragon just for me!"
• Used multiple times in the Moana score:
  • "Where You Are" rhymes "leaves" (the noun that grows on trees) with "leaves" (the verb).
  • "Where You Are" also rhymes "inside" with "inside" two separate times (the first time referring to "the water sweet inside" and "meat inside" coconuts).
  • "How Far I'll Go" starts by rhyming "water/daughter/water".
  • The second verse twice uses 3 lines in a row ending with the word "island".
  • "Shiny" rhymes "anything that glitters" with "thing that glitters" (and also "beginners").
• Encanto: The opening song “The Family Madrigal” repeatedly rhymes “Madrigal” with itself, though it comes up with other rhymes like “fantastical” and “autobiographical”.

Films — Live-Action

• In Wag the Dog, Johnny Dean is trying to come up with a theme song for the war, and says that it's hard to rhyme things with "Albania". Stanley says that it's not his fault and that's just the name of the country, and Johnny sings "Albania, Albania", which satisfies Stanley.
• Chris Cornell:
  • Soundgarden's "Live to Rise" that plays during the end credits of The Avengers (2012) rhymes "again" and "again," and "face" and "face."
  • Casino Royale (2006) has an opening song that constantly rhymes "you" with "you."
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: "Imagination" is rhymed with itself in the opening lines of "Pure Imagination" (though there is a perfect rhyme between "pure" and "your" before the word itself).
• "Big House" from Muppets Most Wanted rhymes "the perfect getaway" with "you'll never get away".
• "Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do)" rhymes "time" with itself in two consecutive lines: "Living his life one day at a time/He's showing himself a really good time". It's easy to miss this because there's no real pause between the lines and for that matter the next one, which isn't meant to rhyme.

Literature

• Older Than Print, as The Canterbury Tales has this pair of lines:
  The holy blisful martir for to seke
  That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seke.
• The Divine Comedy:
  • Dante Alighieri did this intentionally. To prevent any sense of blasphemy, he only rhymed the word "Christ" with "Christ."^note  And mind you, it's much easier to find words that rhyme with "Christ" (well, "Cristo") in Italian than it is in English. Notable in that he had to do it only three times (in Paradiso Cantos XII, XIV, and XIX) due to the rhyming system of the Comedy (ABA BCB CDC ... YZY Z).
  • He also rhymed "volse" with "volse", though in the first case it means "turned" and in the second "wanted."
• The actual last piece of original material in the seventy-three-book Eighth Doctor Adventures is a song with a certain amount of this. Way to be, Fitz. All the rhyming lines rhyme with each other, and two lines end with the word "true", two with "do", two with "you", one with "too" and one with "to". Also, there's an "oh so true" in there.
• Feral Creatures: S.T. composes a poem about moustaches where the second and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme. The final verse ends up rhyming "sovereign" with itself because S.T.'s unable to think of a rhyme, and the last line is just S.T. wondering what rhymes with "sovereign".
• From Eeyore's poem in The House at Pooh Corner:
  (I haven't got a rhyme for that "is" in the second line yet.
  Bother.)
  (Now I haven't got a rhyme for "bother". Bother.)
  Those two "bother"s will have to rhyme with each other.
  Buther.

Live Action TV

• Conan O'Brien's "Thursday", a parody of Rebecca Black's "Friday", featured a rapper with the following lyrics:
  Why is there a rapper here?
  Why exactly am I here?
  Did I just rhyme "here" with "here"?
  I am getting out of here!
• In Drop the Dead Donkey Joy composes a Limerick about Sir Royston. The first, second and fifth lines all end in "bastard".
• The Golden Girls
  • In the episode "Big Daddy's Little Lady," Rose and Dorothy are trying to come up with Miami's new theme song in order to win a contest. The intro to one of their attempts claims that M-I-A-M-I spells 'Miami Beach'! When Blanche points out that it...really doesn't:
    Rose: "I told you not to add 'beach'!"
    Dorothy: "Oh, fine! Fine. You find something to rhyme with 'Miami,' hotshot."
    Rose: "Mammy! Whammy, clammy, Alabam-y, hootenanny, salami!"
    Dorothy: "'Hootenanny' is marginal, and I refuse to accept 'salami'."
  • Earlier in the selfsame episode, Rose recounts of the time she won the contest of song-writing competition for St. Olaf High School sports teams, which has been in use right up to the present time, while talking to Dorothy about the song-writing contest where the winner would receive $10,000:
    Rose: I have written songs before. I wrote the fight-song for our high school: "Onward, St. Olaf". They still sing it. [singing] "Onward, St. Olaf, onward they go. Onward and onward, St. Olaf's go. Go, go, go, go, go, go—"
    Dorothy: Rose, Rose, Rose, I tell you: Honey, it's a very catchy tune, but who wrote those lyrics?
    Rose: I did. Lyrics aren't even my strong point. I just got lucky that one time.
    Dorothy: You're going to have to get a lot luckier than "go, go, go" to win that $10,000.
• Joanie lampshades it in Happy Days while she and Chachi are trying to write a song together. She's sarcastic when she doesn't like his lyrics.
  Joanie: "Really good. I like the way you rhymed shout with shout."
  Chachi: "Well, what do you want? Get out?"
• Jez's poem "Fuck You Bush" on Peep Show:
  Fuck you, Bush
  It's time to get out of Iraq, Bush
  What were you even doing there in the first place, Bush?
  You didn't even get properly elected, Bush
  Are you happy now, Bush?
  Fuck you, Bush
• In the Reptilicus episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, during the song "Every Country Has a Monster", Tom Servo and Crow rhyme "Luxembourg" with itself for four lines.
  Tom: Kropermann is a monster from Luxembourg
  Crow: Who's actually the size of Luxembourg
  Tom: He crushed the whole country of Luxembourg
  All: Because he is the size of Luxembourg!
• Taskmaster had the contestants write the best lyrics for the Taskmaster theme song. Cue Katy Wix:
  Alex: "She rhymed 'tall' with 'tall' in the end."
  David: "And did you rhyme 'eggs' with 'eggs' as well?"
  Katy: (nonchalantly) "It does rhyme…"

Music

• Childish Gambino does the "different meaning, same word" version of this in one song, and then quickly explains it.
  I like pink, it always looks good on me.
  And I like pink, it always looks good on me.
  That second part, I was talking about vagina, homie.
• The McGuire Sisters' "Sugartime": Although it's Anaphora too:
  Sugar in the morning
  Sugar in the evening
  Sugar at suppertime
  Be my little sugar
  And love me all the time
  Honey in the morning
  Honey in the evening
  Honey at suppertime
  So by my little honey
  And love me all the time
• Except for "door"/"more" in the chorus and "do"/"you" in one of the verses, every rhyme in "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers is either "miles", "you", or "gonna be" rhymed with itself.
• Eminem is guilty of this at times.
  • "Without Me":
    Now this looks like a job for me
    So everybody, just follow me
    'Cause we need a little, controversy
    'Cause it feels so empty, without me.
    • This example is debatable, as it is a multirhyme. There's a semi-rhyme between the "o" in "job", and the first "o" in "follow", and he warps the pronunciation of 'follow' to something more like 'foller' to make it rhyme with 'for' (pronounced more like 'fer'). So he's rhyming "job for me" with "follow me".
  • Used intentionally in the hook in "The Way I Am":
    'Cause I am whatever they say I am
    If I wasn't, then why would I say I am?
  • And in the first verse in "The Way I Am":
    'Cause since birth,
    I was cursed
    with this curse
    to just curse
  • In "Puke" he rhymes 'letter' with 'letter':
    I was gonna take the time to sit down and write you a little letter
    but I thought a song would probably be a little better
    instead of a letter
    that you'd probably just shred up
    yea-uh
  • In "When I'm Gone" he combines this with his internal rhymes to rhyme 'baby' with itself as well as 'Shady' with itself (and both with each other). (Also a crazy/baby Stock Rhyme.):
    That's Slim Shady, yeah, baby, Slim Shady's crazy.
    Shady made me, but tonight Shady's rock-a-bye baby.
  • In "What The Beat", he rhymes "crazy" with itself multiple times.
    Cause I ain't crazy, I say shit that's crazy to crazy people
    to make 'em believe I'm crazy so they can relate to me
    and maybe believe in Shady so they can be evil, baby
    I like that! I'm only as crazy as people made me
• Madonna's "Vogue":
  Don't just stand there
  Let's get to it
  Strike a pose
  There's nothing to it
• The Beatles rhymed "better" with "better" in the otherwise excellent "Hey Jude":
  Hey, Jude, don't make it bad/Take a sad song and make it better/Remember to let her into your heart/and you can start to make it better.
  • And then:
  Better, better, better, better, better, better, YEEAAAAAHHH!!!!
  • In "I've Just Seen A Face", Paul McCartney rhymes "met" with "met". ^note  It is worth noting, though, that the song rhymes the phrase "we just met" with "see we've met", making it a grouped rhyme.
  • As noted by internet celebrity Jonathan Coulton, Paul McCartney is the only person on earth who could make the rhyme "love you forever/and forever" sound sweet and endearing instead of ridiculous.
  • A non-McCartney example occurs in the first verse of John Lennon's "Revolution":
  You say you want a revolution/Well, you know/We all want to change the world/You tell me that it's evolution/Well, you know/We all want to change the world
• The Doors rhymed "fire" with "fire" on "Light My Fire." Especially noticeable as Jim Morrison pauses right before the last rhyme, as if searching for a better rhyme and then just shrugging and going with it.
• Black Sabbath rhymed "masses" with "masses" on the otherwise great "War Pigs", although they did use two separate meanings for "masses".
• Coheed and Cambria does this with "21:13", the hidden song on their second album, when they rhyme "all" with "all".
• The Black Eyed Peas rhyme a word with its plural in "Where Is The Love":
  What's wrong with the world, Mama?
  People livin' like they ain't got no mamas
  • In "Meet Me Halfway", apl.de.ap rhymes "uptown" with "downtown".
  • In will.i.am and Justin Bieber's "#ThatPower"
  will.i.am: Used to have a piggy bank.
  Now I got that bigger bank.
• "Pass the Mic" by Beastie Boys:
  Well, everybody rappin' like it's a commercial
  Actin' like life is a big commercial.
  • Although it was originally supposed to be "actin' like life is a big rehearsal"; Mike D accidentally said "commercial" twice and they left it in.
  • The Ill Communication B-side "The Vibes" rhymes "Les McCan" with "Les McCan", which is so blatant one can only assume it's intentional.
  I kick out the jams and tell you who I am
  I'll make you shake your ass like Les McCan
  And then you're out talking shit like Yosemite Sam
  You've got the elephant feet like Les McCan
  • "Get It Together" has Q-Tip doing this during his guest appearance and immediately doing some Lampshade Hanging:
  I eat the fuckin' pineapple Now & Laters
  Listen to me now, don't listen to me later
  Fuck it, 'cause I know I didn't make it fuckin' rhyme for real
  But, yo, technically, I'm hard as steel
• "Breakfast In America" by Supertramp contains a line that rhymes "girlfriend" with "girlfriend."
• Avril Lavigne used the "girlfriend/girlfriend" rhyme too. Guess what song that's in?
• In "Deadbolt" (an excellent song despite this), Thrice, who are typically lyrical masters, rhyme "poison" with itself:
  You call from the streets.
  "Darling, you don't know, the water is poisoned."
  And I say, "Come on and give me my poison!"
  • That being said, it might not count completely as it's two different uses of "poison", with the first being a participle and the second being a noun.
  • Thrice also does this with "you" in "A Song for Milly Michaelson":
  Well, you know I hardly speak.
  When I do, it's just for you.
  I haven't said a word in weeks,
  'Cause they've been keeping me from you.
• "No Scrubs" by TLC prominently rhymes the word "me" with itself.
  I don't want no scrub
  A scrub is a guy who can't get no love from *me*
  Hangin' on the passenger side of his best friend's ride
  Trying to holler at *me*
• "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Deep Blue Something rhymes "The world has come between us" and "Our life has come between us" possibly to avoid having to talk about something that rhymes with "between us" and starts with P.
• Played with, but cleverly averted, in Randy Travis' "Better Class of Losers,", which rhymes "sweet" and "suite," a very rare example of using homophones as rhymes.
  • Another homophone rhyme: "Me and You" by Kenny Chesney rhymes "too" and "to" in the chorus.
  • And a rather clever one in The Notorious B.I.G.'s "What's Beef", which rhymes "I see you" with "ICU".
• Train's "Meet Virginia" does this four times, with "beautiful," "president," and "unusual" in the verses, and "life" in the chorus. (Technically, they also rhyme "queen" with itself in one refrain, but because of the rhyme scheme it's not as noticeable.)
  • Regarding the "Life" rhyme, its worth noting that the song rhymes "life" twice in 4 lines.
    Well she wants to live her life
    Then she thinks about her life
    Pulls her hair back as she screams
    "I don't really want to live this life"
• Limp Bizkit's "Rollin'" rhymes "here" with "here", though it could be argued the actual rhyme is "this shit" and "biz-kit" (this is not apparent in the censored version).
  • They do it again on the first track of their Golden Cobra album, rhyming "this" with "this".
    Pat's Metal Reviews: Everyone who ever tried to tell me Fred Durst is a good songwriter, I'd just like to point this out: he can't think of a rhyme for "this".
• Coldplay's "Everything's Not Lost" rhymes "lost" with "lost."
• "It Was an Absolutely, Finger-Lickin', Grits and Chicken, Country Music Love Song" by Bomshel uses "song/along/song/song" as a rhyme in the chorus. This is a rare two-for-one, as it uses both a StockRhyme (song/along) and a Rhyming With Itself based on the same word.
• Jessica Harp's "Boy Like Me" rhymes "with me" with the title.
• "If You've Got the Money" by Lefty Frizzell, later covered by Willie Nelson, rhymes "time" with itself in the chorus and second verse.
• "Perfect Insanity" by Disturbed once rhymes "mind" with itself.
• "Some Things Are Meant to Be" by Linda Davis does this with "for you" right off the bat.
• Taylor Swift does it a couple of times:
  • "You Belong with Me" rhymes "like I do" with, "like I do", and later, "than that" and "like that".
  • "Look What You Made Me Do".
    But I got smarter, I got harder, in the nick of time
    Honey, I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time
• The second verse of "I Wonder" by Kellie Pickler rhymes "like mothers do" with itself.
• "The Seashores of Old Mexico," first recorded by Merle Haggard and covered by George Strait gets it out of the way in the first line, which rhymes "in mind" with itself.
• Another George Strait with an example is "Troubadour", whose second verse rhymes "mirror" with "mirror".
• Finger Eleven's "One Thing" rhymes "thing" with "thing" twice, "time" with "time" once, and then goes on a Rhyming Rampage when it begins to rhyme "know" with "know" no less than nine times. This might make One Thing the ultimate example of this trope.
• Flirted with in "The Bride" by Trick Pony, which rhymes "pretty thing" and "anything."
• Abba's "The Winner Takes It All" rhymes "plain" with "complain," which may not technically be a Rhyming With Itself, but it has the same feel to it.
  • And don't forget "S.O.S." where the two couplets in the chorus not only rhyme "on" with itself but also share almost all the same words.
  When you're gone
  How can I even try to go on?
  When you're gone
  Though I try how can I carry on?
• "My Heart Is Full Of Hatred And Loathing" from The Brak Show:
  Like I said, I hate you jerks.
  What a bunch of stupid jerks.
• "Weird Al" Yankovic:
  • He naturally parodied this in "Trapped in the Drive-Thru", a parody of R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet", in which he rhymes "Door" with itself several times, and later rhymes "drive-thru" with itself for eight lines in a row, lampshading it in the last line: "Did I mention the drive-thru?".
  • "I Need a Nap" manages to rhyme "tough" with "enough"—at which the singer then tries to think of another word that rhymes with "enough", fails, and resorts to simply repeating "enough is enough is enough is—" for a bit.
• Used for humorous effect in an entire verse of Flight of the Conchords' "Hurt Feelings":
  I call my friends, say "let's go into town"
  But they're all too busy to go into town
  So I go by myself, I go into town
  Then I see all my friends... they're all in town
• Done by Manowar on their song "God or Man".
  I arrive, a stranger in this land
  And those who seek me, their blood will wash the land
• Morrissey's catchy-weird "The More You Ignore Me The Closer I Get":
  I will be in the bar
  With my head on the bar
• Kid Rock's "All Summer Long":
  We were trying different things
  We were smoking funny things
• The verses of Moxy Früvous's "Kids Song" are limericks. The first two have pretty brutal rhymes (toxic/dioxic/dog sick), and then the third one has:
  Hello, I'm Gabby and I just got here from Chile
  I like Canada, except that it is chilly
  I met Premier Bob Rae, and he ain't no Pinochet
  My mother makes a spicy bowl of chili three rhymes!!
  Other band members: Grr.
• The Linda Lindas' song about Claudia Kishi:
  I am Claudia Kishi
  You are Claudia Kishi
  She is Claudia Kishi
  We are Claudia Kishi
• The Clash rhyme "sound" with "sound" in "Rock the Casbah".
  • And from the same album, "Straight to Hell" rhymes "here" with itself, among non-rhymes and repeated lines.
• "Always" by Saliva has this line:
  I feel like you don't want me around
  I guess I'll pack all my things
  I guess I'll see you around
• In DJ Format's "3 Feet Deep", guest rapper D-Sisive does this deliberately for an internal rhyme: "And I can win a mic fight by using the same line twice / Ripping me is like a mic fight"
• "Always" by Erasure rhymes "open" with itself in the first verse.
  Open your eyes, I see
  Your eyes are open.
  Wear no disguise for me.
  Come into the open.
• Green Day's song "Longview" rhymes three times:
  I got no motivation
  Where is my motivation?
  No time for motivation
  Smoking my inspiration
• The Nirvana song "You Know You're Right": "No thought was put into this/I always knew it would come to this". This was a replacement for the original take of the song, where the second line was "I'm walking in the piss".
• "How to Save a Life" by The Fray does this anywhere from three to five different times depending on what counts: three straight examples, one instance of the whole line being repeated when the same line in the previous verse was two distinct lines, and one coupling of "things" with "everything". For perspective, not counting repeats as distinct the lyrics have 12 chances to rhyme; four of them are Rhyming with Itself and two are the alleged rhymes "friend/bitterness" and "night/life".
• The White Stripes' "The Hardest Button to Button" has this masterful rhyme:
  I've got a backyard
  With nothin' in it
  Except a stick, a dog,
  And a box with somethin' in it.
• Ween does this twice in a row on "Puffy Cloud" from their first album, GodWeenSatan: The Oneness:
  Drift away on a puffy cloud
  Go away on a puffy cloud
  My brain is dead from too much pot,
  Cause Dean and I smoke too much pot.
• Paul Westerberg of The Replacements also does this on "Waitress in the Sky":
  And the sign says, "Thank you very much for not smokin'"
  My own sign says, "I'm sorry, I'm smokin'"
• Part of the refrain of "Between The Lines" by Stone Temple Pilots: "You always were my favorite drug/ Even when we used to take drugs"
• As shown on The So-Called Coward page, the first verse of "The Coward of the County" rhymes "wrong" with itself.
• As pointed out in Todd in the Shadows' review, "Break Up" by Mario featuring Gucci Mane and Sean Garrett rhymes "model" with "model", much to his incoherent rage.
  • Todd's very first episode, Jay Sean's "Down", had to point out this rhyme:
  Baby are you down, down, down, down, down? (down, down)
  Even if the sky is falling down
• Rapper Juelz Santana abuses the living hell out of this trope. Here's an example:
  "Yeah, but I be right back at ya, twice back at ya, like Christ back at ya, yeah!
  You be like damn, that’s one nice ass rapper,
  I kind of like that rapper, I want to be like that rapper, (no!)
  No, but if you bite that rapper,
  I might bite back at you, with that rifle at ya"
• Xzibit does this on "Multiply":
  I got a sixth sense, that tells me you ain't worth six cents,
  I'm sick with my sixth sense.
• Shows up in the first verse of "The Cat Came Back":
  He tried and he tried to give the cat away;
  He gave it to a man going far, far away.
• "Black and Gold" by Sam Sparro has this little gem. Granted, he is talking about two different "matters", but still:
  'Cuz if you're not really here
  Then the stars don't even matter
  Now I'm filled to the top with fear
  That it's all just a bunch of matter
  • He's actually saying "natter" in the second B line, which basically means "small talk".
    • It sounds like "matter" in the song. And it makes sense in context that he's "filled to the top with fear that [the universe] is just a bunch of matter."
• In Beyoncé's verse on Lady Gaga's "Telephone", she rhymes "faster," with "faster," and then with "faster."
• Def Leppard's "Hysteria":
  I want to know tonight
  If you're alone tonight
• Sonata Arctica rhymes "seeing" with itself in the full version of "Everything Fades to Gray".
• The Magnetic Fields pull off a sneaky one in "I Don't Believe You":
  So you're brilliant, gorgeous &
  Ampersand after ampersand
• David Bowie's "Kooks":
  We bought a lot of things to keep you warm and dry
  A funny old crib on which the paint won't dry
  • Also, in "Heroes":
  I, I wish you could swim
  Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
• Rick Ross in a lot of his songs, but especially in "(Everyday I'm) Hustlin":
  I'm in the distribution, I'm like Atlantic
  I got them motherfuckers flyin' 'cross the Atlantic
  I know Pablo, Noriega
  The real Noriega, he owe me a hundred favors.
  • As well as:
    We never steal cars, but we deal hard
    Whip it real hard whip it whip it real hard
    I caught a charge,(yeah) I caught a charge
    Whip it real hard, whip it whip it real hard.
  • And one that can lead to hysterical laughter on first hearing:
    Don't tote no twenty-twos, Magnum cost me twenty-two
    Sat it on them twenty-twos, birds go for twenty-two
    Lil' mama super thick, she say she twenty-two
    She seen them twenty-twos, we in room two twenty-two.
    • Yes, he did just rhyme the same word 7 times. So then to end the song, he does this:
    In the M-I-A-YO them niggaz rich off that Yayo
    Steady slangin' Yayo, my Chevy bangin' Yayo.
• The Kinks' "Lola":
  Well, I'd left home just a week before
  and I'd never, ever kissed a woman before
  but Lola smiled and took me by the hand
  said "Little boy, gonna make you a man."
  Well, I'm not the world's most masculine man
  but I know what I am, and I'm glad I'm a man
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody, "Yoda":
  Well, I'd left home just a week before
  and I'd never, ever been a Jedi before
• "Jingle Bell Rock", at least the original by Bobby Helms, rhymes "Giddyup, jingle horse, pick up your feet" with "Mix and mingle in the jinglin' feet", even though the latter makes no sense. Many covers change it to the more logical "jinglin' beat".
• Robby Roadsteamer's "Heart Of A Rhino":
  I've got the mind of a ninja
  And the strength of a thousand... ninjas?
• Drake rhymes "mafucka" with itself 5 times in the remix to Kanye West's "All of the Lights"
  • He also lets The Weeknd rhyme "Poland" and "C4" with themselves in "Crew Love"
  • Justified when he repeats a whole line in Rick Ross's "Stay Schemin'", which he does for emphasis (Ross joins him). Said line "Bitch you wasn't with me shootin' in the gym" became one of the rap memes of the year.
• Don Williams' "Tulsa Time" rhymes "time" with itself several times.
• "Mr. Knowitall" by Primus does this and lampshades it:
  They call me Mr. Knowitall - I am so eloquent
  Perfection is my middle name and whatever rhymes with eloquent
• Shakira, in the chorus of the Spanish version of "Whenever, wherever" manages to rhyme "vida" with itself three times in a row:
  Contigo, mi vida / quiero vivir la vida
  Lo que me queda de vida / lo quiero vivir contigo.
  • The redundancy is especially grating because the second couplet essentially means the same as the first.
• "Stuck in the Middle With You" by Stealers Wheel rhymes "make some sense of it all" with "makes no sense at all".
• The final verse of Britney Spears' "Toxic" manages to rhyme now four times in a row and that's before it repeats itself.
  Intoxicate me now / with your lovin' now / I think I'm ready now / I think I'm ready now
• "Alone Again (Naturally)" by Gilbert O Sullivan rhymes "myself" with "myself" in the first verse. (In the rest of the verses there are legitimate rhymes in that position - cried/died, to/do - so it was intentional.)
• Young Jeezy's "My President Is Black" has a bizarre example: it rhymes "New Orleans" with itself, but uses two different pronounciations.
• Queen's "Who Wants to Live Forever" rhymes "us" with "us" no less than six times over the span of three verses.
• "One Is the Loneliest Number" by Three Dog Night:
  Two can be as bad as one,
  It's the loneliest number since the number one.
• America's "Sandman" (not to be confused with with the Chordates song "Mr. Sandman") rhymes "man" with "sandman" in its chorus.
• Swedish pop star Eric Saade's single "Popular" presents us with this little gem:
  Stop, don't say that it's impossible,
  'Cause, I know, it's possible.
• MC Lars' Deangelo Vickers:
  My dog got cancer, so we put it to sleep
  But when I rock the mic, I don't put you to sleep
• "The Joker" by the Steve Miller Band uses "love" twice in its opening verse:
  Some people call me the Space Cowboy (yeah)
  Some call me the Gangster of Love
  Some people call me Maurice
  'Cause I speak of the pompatus of love.
• The chorus of "Love is Like Oxygen" by Sweet matches "high" with itself:
  Love is like oxygen
  You get too much you get too high
  Not enough and you're gonna die
  Love gets you high.
• The chorus of Val Doonican's "Walk Tall" begins and ends with the same line, but the meat in the sandwich also rhymes a word with itself:
  "Walk tall, walk straight and look the world right in the eye."
  That's what my momma told me when I was about knee-high.
  She said, "Son, be a proud man and hold your head up high.
  Walk tall, walk straight and look the world right in the eye."
• Mike Shinoda did this at least twice:
  • "Papercut" from Hybrid Theory has this as the opening lyrics:
  Why does it feel like night today?
  Something in here's not right today.
  Why am I so uptight today?
  Paranoia's all I've got left.
  • "Place to Start" started off as a demo track for One More Light; the track was later repurposed for his solo album, Post Traumatic, to reflect his frame of mind after Chester's passing:
  I don't have a leg to stand on
  Spinning like a whirlwind, nothing to land on
  Came so far, I never thought I'd be done now
  Stuck in a holding pattern waiting to come down
  Did somebody else define me?
  Can I put the past behind me?
  
• Tyler, the Creator both uses and subverts it on the song "The Tape Intro":
  "Whether you nigga or esé
  The magazine is great because the article's an essay
  Half you dumb niggas can't even write an essay
  'Cause all of y'all some stupid asses. S.A."
• Asher Roth's "I Love College" rhymes "wasted" with "wasted" several times.
• Pitbull:
  • The song "Give Me Everything (Tonight)" might be the new champion, starting it off by rhyming (of all things) "Kodak" with "Kodak" in... the exact same context:
    "Me not working hard?
    Yeah right, picture that with a Kodak
    Better yet, go to Times Square
    Take a picture of me with a Kodak
  • It is then followed by the word "tonight" rhyming with itself no fewer than 43 times over the course of the song.
  • In "Back in Time", the theme to the third Men in Black film, Pitbull rhymes "They can try if they want to", with "They can try if they want to."
• Kanye West:
  • He does this as a joke in "Slow Jamz", referring to Michael Jackson's varying pigmentation over his life.
    "She got a light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson
    Got a dark-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson."
  • He does something similar in Keri Hilson's "Knock You Down."
    This is bad, real bad, Michael Jackson.
    Now I'm mad, real mad, Joe Jackson!
• "Snap Yo Fingers" by Lil' Jon:
  Snap ya fingers and then rock wit it
  Do it, do it, do it, do it, gon' drop wit it
  Do a step with it, put your hips with it
  All my ladies let me see ya put a twist wit it
• Jennifer Lopez's song "On The Floor" rhymes "on the floor" with "on the floor" too many times to count.
• Chris Brown provides a rather extreme example in his single "Look At Me Now."
  Better cuff your chick if you with her, I can get her and she accidentally slip and fall on my dick
  Oops I said, "on my dick"
  I ain't really mean to say "on my dick"
  But since we talkin' about my dick
  All of you haters say hi to it.
• Some versions of "Winter Wonderland" have this verse:
  In the meadow, we can build a snowman
  And pretend that he's a circus clown
  We'll have lots of fun with Mr. Snowman
  Until the other kiddies knock him down
• Foreigner's "Hot Blooded":
  You don't have to read my mind
  To know what I have in mind.
• Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive" - though at least it's two different meanings:
  I walk these streets, a loaded six string on my back
  I play for keeps, 'cause I might not make it back.
• Rise Against's "Prayer of the Refugee":
  So open your eyes, child, let's be on our way
  Broken windows and ashes are guiding the way
• Big Sean's "Dance" rhymes "what's up" with "shut up".
• Kreayshawn's "Breakfast (Syrup)":
  'Bout that juice, cheese, bread—breakfast
  Stackin' dough—breakfast
• Lou Reed's "Caroline Says" rhymes "vial" with "vile."
  • Another Lou Reed one is "Walk On The Wild Side" where he rhymes 'head' with 'head' - "But she never lost her head, even when she was giving head".
• The Spin Doctors' "Two Princes" puts "now" at the end of every other line outside of the choruses, and also rhyme "you" with itself several times.
• Wocka Flocka Flame does this a lot in the song "Oh Let's Do It" by rhyming "up" "what the fuck you want" "Riverdale, Gerogia" and "acting crazy" all with themselves.
• The chorus of Butthole Surfers' "Shame Of Life" rhymes "life" with itself (to be fair it could be said that it rhymes "shame of life" and "game of life"). Apparently Kid Rock was responsible for that part of the song though.
• The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes" rhymes man with itself (more specifically, "Bad man" and "Sad man") in the first and last verses, but averts this throughout the rest of the song.
• The Gun Club's "For The Love Of Ivy" rhymes "hell" with itself four times in a row.
• Nicki Minaj rhymes "nothing" with itself in "Beez in the Trap." She also rhymes "man" with itself in "Stupid Hoe".
• Katy Perry's "Part of Me":
  This is the part of me
  That you're never gonna ever take away from me
• Beyoncé's famous "Irreplaceable".
  I could have another you in a minute.
  And in fact, he'll be here in a minute!
  • "7/11" from the reissue of her self-titled release may be the new grand champion, rhyming several words with themselves:
    • The very first few bars of the song rhyme "smack it in the air" with itself six times, which is then repeated after the second verse.
    • After that, "put it in the air" rhymes with itself, then so does "like you don't care".
    • The first verse rhymes "foot up" and "hands up" with themselves many times.
    • After that, the bridge rhymes "alcohol" with itself seven times.
    • The outro repeats "Wave your hands side to side" four times.
• The ballad "Wreck of the Old 97" does this, rhyming "time" with "time".
  They gave him his orders at Monroe, Virginia
  Saying "Steve, you're way behind time,
  This is not 38, but it's Old 97,
  You must put her into Spencer on time."
• The final verse of the otherwise sublime Don't Fear The Reaper does this...
  Came the last night of sadness, and it was clear she couldn't go on;
  And the door burst open and a wind appeared;
  The candle blew and then disappeared;
  The curtains flew and then He appeared...
  (Sayin' "Don't be afraid")
  • The Cult also gave us the final verse of "E.T.I.", in which only one line out of the four does not end in the word "motion".
• "Silent All These Years" by Tori Amos:
  So you've found a girl who thinks really deep thoughts
  Tell me what's so amazing about really deep thoughts?
• "The Deal" by P, although it can be argued that they're at least using two different definitions of the same word:
  And so the moral of this story is
  Never cross an angel with an ass
  Never treat the shiny one to ice cream cones
  Never pinch a sweaty, mean cop's ass
• "Rainy Night in Georgia" (originally Tony Joe White, Covered Up by Brook Benton):
  Neon lights flashin', taxi cabs and buses
  Passing through the night
  The distant moaning of a train seems to play a sad refrain
  To the night
• The Gregory Brothers make fun of this in DJ Play My Song (NO, LEAVE ME ALONE)
  You just rhymed "up" with "up"!
  You're really phoning this in.
  Does "mouse" rhyme with "mouse"? No, it's the same word!
• Gary Allan's "Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)":
  Go find a new rose, don't be afraid of the thorns
  'Cause we all have thorns
• Even Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull is not immune. From "Back to the Family":
  Everything I do is wrong,
  what the hell was I thinking?
  Phone keeps ringing all day long
  I got no time for thinking.
• Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines": "You wanna hug me?\ What rhymes with 'hug me'?"
  • Todd in the Shadows made sure to point out that the obvious intended rhyme was "Fuck me", but that was too much of a stretch to work. "Drug me", on the other hand fits.
• The Boswell Sisters' "I Can't Write the Words" rhymed "Spanish castle" with itself several times for humorous effect, lampshading it at the end of the verse:
  I've got a rhyme for a Spanish castle
  Grass'll grow around the castle
• Kelly Clarkson's "Mr. Know It All" rhymes "Know it all" with "Know it all", and then "thing at all". Later, it rhymes "bring me down" with "bring me down", and then "back again" with "back again". Yeesh...
• Subverted with Lady Gaga's "Alejandro", in that, as pointed out by Todd in the Shadows, almost had "in her pocket" rhyme with itself, but was instead replaced by "en su bolsillo", which is just Spanish for "in her pocket".
• Joey Bada$$ does this a lot in his Lil B diss, "Don't Quit Your Day Job". A good part of the song rhymes "nigga" with itself.
  You pink flame ass nigga, lame ass nigga
  Publicity stuntin' for the fame ass nigga
  Badass, I'm not lyin' but you've got to tame that nigga
• Two examples from country music:
  • Tracy Lawrence rhymes "again" with itself in "Texas Tornado," and not just because of the repetition in the last line:
  My little Texas tornado, you're blowing me away again
  I swore it wouldn't happen again
  But you looked at me and then
  I'm like a tumbleweed in a wild west Texas wind
  You're blowing me away again
  • But that's more variety than Mel Street's "Virigina's Song," which contains no actual rhyme in the chorus, but only the word "again," repeated in *each* line.
  What I wouldn't give to see Virginia again
  To press her sweet lips so warm and full of love to mine again and again
  Her sparkling eyes, her soft brown curls are invading my memories again
  Lord, what I wouldn't give to see Virginia again
• This is all over the place in Afrikaans music, for one quirk of their grammar: Afrikaans always uses double negatives, and thus any negative sentence, ("I do not know," "he is not here," "I saw nothing," etc.), always ends in the word nie, "not." ^note Like Ek het niks gesien nie, I have nothing seen not'' = "I saw nothing." This makes rhyming two negative sentences rather simple, but it still gets old fast.
• A few examples from some of Imagine Dragons songs:
  • "On Top of the World" rhymes "you" and "something" with themselves.
  • "Ready, Aim, Fire"
    How come I've never seen your face 'round here?
    I know every single face 'round here
    A man on a mission, changing the vision
    I was never welcome here
  • "Monster"
    I'm only a man with a candle to guide me
    I'm taking a stand to escape what's inside me
    A monster, a monster
    I've turned into a monster
    A monster, a monster
    And it keeps getting stronger
• From the Plain White T's' "Hey There Delilah"

  I'd walk to you if I had no other way
  Our friends would all make fun of us
  and we'll just laugh along because we know
  That none of them have felt this way

  • There's also
    We'll have it good
    We'll have the life we knew we would
    My word is good
  • and
    I’d write it all,
    Even more in love with me you’d fall,
    We’d have it all.
• Paramore does this in "Misery Business":

  Second chances, they don't ever matter
  People never change
  Once a whore, you're nothing more, I'm sorry
  That'll never change

• "My Sharona" by The Knack only ever rhymes "Sharona" with itself. This is possibly because, as Andre Gardner points out, if they averted this trope the songwriters would have to have come up with ridiculous slant rhymes, like "bologna" or something.
• Miley Cyrus does this twice in "We Can't Stop". The first time she rhymes 'now' with 'now', and the second time she does this:

  And everyone in line in the bathroom
  Trying to get a line in the bathroom

• Carrie Underwood and Miranda Lambert's "Something Bad" rhymes a word with the past tense version of itself. Not technically rhyming with itself, but it is very close:

  Stand on the bar, stomp your feet, start clapping

  Got a real good feeling something bad about to happen

  Drinks keep coming, throw my head back laughing

  Wake up in the morning’ don’t know what happened

• Cannibal Ox's "Raspberry Fields":
  The sample's the flesh and the beat's the skeleton
  You got beef but there's worms in your Wellington
  I'll put a hole in your skull and extract your skeleton
  Oh my God, said a word twice, Vast Aire, I'm twice as nice
  • Those lines are repeated later in the song, but the second time Vast Aire changes the rhyme to "extract your gelatine".
• An interesting French-language example from Céline Dion's 1987 song "La Religieuse" (The Nun): one verse rhymes with itself twice, but in both cases does not rhyme a word with itself, but rather rhymes a short word with a longer word that includes it. It rhymes "mur" (wall) with "murmurent" (murmur, the "ent" is silent) and "vie" (life) with "envie" (desire).
  De l'autre coté de ce mur (From the other side of this wall)
  Il y a le soleil de la vie (There is the sun of life)
  Il y a des lèvres qui murmurent (There are lips that murmur)
  A des lèvres assoiffées d'envie (To lips thirsty with desire)
• "Glow in the Dark" by Carishma:
  I made a wish and now I know where you are, boy
  I think I found it, you're my lucky star, boy
  It's not the kind of feeling that you fight, boy
  Cause I can see you in the dark at night, boy
• "Shia LaBeouf" by Rob Cantor:
  You’re sneaking up behind him.
  Strangling superstar Shia LaBeouf.
  Fighting for your life with Shia LaBeouf,
  Wrestling a knife from Shia LaBeouf,
  Stab it in his kidney.
  Safe at last from Shia LaBeouf.
• "No Mediocre" by T.I.:
  All I fuck is bad bitches
  I don't want no mediocre
  Don't want no mediocre
  I don't want no mediocre, no
  Bad bitches only
  Ain't no mediocre
  Don't want no mediocre
  I won't hit no mediocre
  You a bad bitch
  Stunting on the mediocre
  All over the mediocre
  You stunting on the mediocre
  Seven bitches with me
  And ain't none of them mediocre
  From they head to they toes
  They so far from mediocre
  • Also, in the same song:
  No more, you won't get no dick if there's a bush down there
  Girl I should see nothing but pussy when I look down there
• In Marcy Playground's "Sex and Candy", the words "myself" and "myself" are rhymed with each other several times.
• From "Suds & Soda" from Worst Case Scenario by dEUS:
  It's suds and soda, a brain decoder
  and can I wait for my decoder
• Missy Elliott's portion of Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) (Remix)" does this in two consecutive couplets:
  I party till I'm out my mind
  I kiss on him, but he don't mind
  Then I wake up in the morn
  Got a guy in my bed like, hello good morn
• Live has a Word Salad Lyrics song called "Rattlesnake" that contains the following homophone rhyme:
  In another place, in another time, I'd be drivin' trucks, my dear
  I'd be skinnin' hunted deer
• "Moonchild" by Iron Maiden has the last verse rhyming "night" with itself. Bruce's epic story-teller enunciation on both lines makes it hard to notice.
• Zeehas; 12 Wait's "Destination" rhymes "feel" with itself four times in a row - this might be to deliberate effect, because it's also a straightforward and overly redundant passage in the middle of a song otherwise full of Word Salad Lyrics:
  I'm upset that none of you know how I feel
  It really bothers me that nobody knows how I feel
  Know how I feel?
  No one ever really knows just how I feel
• Both Brantley Gilbert's "Bottoms Up" and Luke Bryan's "Kick the Dust Up" repeatedly rhyme "up" with "up".
• "My World" by Trout Fishing in America:
  When I walk my feet are sinking in the sidewalk
  Just like I'm walking on a trampoline
  And when I jump into the air, everybody ducks their heads
  Then I bounce, just like on a trampoline
• Phil Phillips' "Sea of Love" opens with:
  Come with me, my love
  To the sea, the Sea of Love
• From Biffy Clyro's "Saturday Superhouse":
  There's a dozen corpses on the left side, I swear one's smiling at me
  Compliments on your confessions baby, wow you really showed me
  • And then in "Flammable":
    All of the things I said shouldn't fail you now
    Unless you're looking for a miracle
    Out of the light, we lost you in the crowd
    You'll never find us a miracle
• From Dschinghis Khan's English version of "Loreley":
  Every man desired her, but her heart was not her own, there was just one lover for her.
  But he'd gone away to war, never ever to return, so this life held nothing for her.
• From "At the Gallows End" by Candlemass:
  A sinner, a fool or a devil
  Or just a victim of life
  It's no fun to burn in hell's fire
  But I sure have enjoyed my life
• Christian melodic hardcore band Set Free's "Believers" does this quite a bit, rhyming "everyone" with "one", later rhyming "nation" with itself and the final verse having every line end with "for". To be fair, these aren't necessarily supposed to be rhymes, rather than just reusing the word in slightly reworded lines for effect^note this is a very common tactic in hardcore lyrics....except for the first example, where the words and meanings are quite different.
• Happens two different times in Avantasia's song "The Scarecrow"
  • First in the chorus:
  Rise to fame - time will come
  Make your claim - time has come
  For the crow to fly away
  • And later in the song:
  Their evil eyes are looking down on you
  And those who don't are losing sight of you
• A very clever homophone appears in Lloyd Cole's "2CV". (But what else do you expect from him?)
  All we ever shared was a taste in clothes
  Oh we were never close...
• Similarly, in "Watching the Detectives" by Elvis Costello (another famously smart songwriter):
  Cut to baby taking off her clothes
  Close up of the sign that says "we never close"...
• "Half-Assed Rapper" by Devo Spice has:
  Got phat rhymes, and clever lyrics
  I know you're impressed, by the clever lyrics
• The Spin Room's "Fairest One of All"'s chorus starts with the three-rhyme structure "all/ball/all".
• Barenaked Ladies rhyme "asleep" with "asleep" on "Pinch Me".
• A rap in Timbaland’s "The Way I Are" gives us this couplet:
  I ain’t got a motorboat
  But I can float your boat
• "Mary's Prayer" by Danny Wilson has:
  I used to be so careless,
  As if I couldn't care less.
• Waterloo Sunset" by The Kinks:
  Terry meets Julie, Waterloo station,
  Every Friday night.
  But I am so lazy, don't want to wander,
  I stay at home at night.
• "Best Friend" by Sofi Tukker becomes this in the clean edit (prominently featured in an ad for the iPhone X), changing "shit to shoot" to "things to do" for a rhyme of "Every time you call on me I drop what I do / You are my best friend and we've got some things to do."
• "Ridin' My Thumb to Mexico", a big hit for Country Music singer-songwriter Johnny Rodriguez in 1973.
  If I had listened to a friend of mine ten years ago today
  I'd have a better job than what I've got today
• Mayday Parade sort of this does in chorus of the regardless excellent "Jamie All Over", although within context it's actually kind of clever using a dual meaning, and certainly more fitting than the supposed rhymes of "me" and "dreaming" and "memories":
  Hey, please don't tell me
  That I'm dreaming
  When all I ever wanted was to
  Dream another sunset with you
  If I roll over
  When it's over
  I'll take this Cali sunrise with me
  And wake up with the fondest memories
• Joy Division's "Candidate":
  I campaigned for nothing
  I worked hard for this
  I tried to get to you
  You treat me like this
• Every single rhyme in The Beach Boys song "God Only Knows" does this. It's also considered one of the greatest songs ever written.
  I may not always love you
  But long as there are stars above you
  You never need to doubt it
  I'll make you so sure about it
• Vylet Pony's 'Different Kind of Magic':
  And every day is a search for who we are
  When will we catch a break, and be happy with who we are?
• "Let Them Know" by Mabel:
  I got a new man in my business,
  And he all about his business,
  And his name ain't none of your business.
• "Victory Lap" by Knox Hill:
  I'm a monster, mobbin' in Converse,
  Y'all robbers, bars full of con verse

Other Media

• In one issue of PC Gamer, a letter writer wrote a long poem letter about various upcoming and recently released games. It concluded by identifying a quote mentioned in the magazine, and rhymed "Delta House with "Animal House," prompting the editors to ask whether rhyming "House" with itself was allowed.

Poetry

• In most of Edward Lear's early limericks, the first and last lines are the same, with this as the inevitable consequence. One rhymes "beard" with "beard".
• Edgar Allan Poe sometimes did this to deliberate effect, e.g., in The Raven:
  "Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
  Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore—
  Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
• Jorge Luis Borges did it occasionally, most notably in "Arte Poetica", where every rhyme is of this kind, with system ABBA.
• Played for Laughs with "Copy" by the English poet Thomas Hood. It also crosses over with Fun with Homophones.
• In Robert Browning's "Give a Rouse", a short poem meant to be a marching song sung by Cavalier soldiers in the English Civil War, every rhyme is this. The first verse has three straight lines ending in "now".
• The American version of the nursery rhyme "Pop Goes the Weasel" rhymes "weasel" with "weasel."
• Stirring Science Stories: Damon Knight's "The Rocket" is a five-stanza poem that ends each stanza on "rocket".

Radio

• Our Miss Brooks: The radio episodes "Clay City English Teacher" and "Mr. Laythrop returns to School" feature the Madison anthem, "O Madison". The offical version rhymes "Madison" with "Madison". Miss Brooks makes the song longer in "Clay City English Teacher by adding the paranthetical lyrics in parody:
  O Madison!
  Thou Madison!
  (As old as Thomas Addison!)
  O hallowed halls!
  (O basketballs!)
  How short the day!
  (how short the pay!)
  When we gray hair at Madison!
  We'll still be there at Madison!
  (Hello, Clay City!)

Theatre

• In The Phantom of the Opera song "Notes/Prima Donna", theater-manager Firmin rhymes "wrote" with "wrote," but quickly corrects himself.
  Raoul: Isn't this the letter you wrote?
  Firmin: And what is it that we're meant to have wrote? (Spoken) Ah... written.
• Oscar Hammerstein II rhymes "forever" with "forever" in his song "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music.
• Red House Painters' Mark Kozelek usually avoids this. On the song "Have You Forgotten", though, he accidentally lets one slip: "That's when friends were nice, To think of them just makes you feel nice."
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has the lyric "Sweeney pondered and Sweeney planned, like a perfect machine 'e planned" appearing in the title song. (In this case, note that it's actually the last three syllables of each line that rhyme, with only the very last syllable being the same word.)
• The musical version of Billy Elliot has "Grandma's Song" which rhymes finger with finger constantly.
• The musical adaptation of Finding Neverland has these lines from "When Your Feet Don't Touch the Ground"
  Now all my tears are all cried out,
  Make-believe, but count me out.
• One of the plays of Jára Cimrman Theatre in Prague contains a poem that is ALL this, containing "rhymes" like "Our old clock beats four o'clock". Jára Cimrman apparently believed that a rhyme must repeat the whole word in order to be considered perfect. The actors mention (with a straight face, as always) that it's still not a perfect solution, since the perfection of the rhyme is at the cost of "certain diminishment of the meaning".
• In Hamilton, this is first used in "Satisfied" in order to actually communicate the Double Entendre Hamilton's making, though it's not too painful with the addition of an extra internal rhyme as well:
  Hamilton: You strike me as a woman who has never been satisfied.
  Angelica: I'm sure I don't know what you mean, you forget yourself.
  Hamilton: You're like me, I have never been satisfied.
  Angelica: Is that right?
  Hamilton: I'm never satisfied.
  • However, outside of this instance, the trope is actually used for thematic dramatic effect: Hamilton, who can talk a mile a minute and rap faster and with greater complexity than almost anyone else in the show, is reduced to self-rhymes when he's too full of emotion for his son, first in "Dear Theodosia":
  Oh, Phillip, when you smile I am undone
  My son
  Look at my son!
  Pride is not the word I'm looking for
  There is so much more inside me now!
  • ...and then, much more heart-breakingly in "It's Quiet Uptown":
  Phillip, you would like it uptown
  It's quiet uptown
  • Which might even be extended to "Tomorrow There'll be More Of Us", as this is the only not fully sung scene in the entire musical, as though with the shocking revelation of Laurens' death he briefly lost the ability to sing altogether.
  • King George III has these lines in "You'll Be Back":
  And no, don’t change the subject
  Cuz you’re my favorite subject
  My sweet, submissive subject
  My loyal, royal subject
• The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals: "Join Us (And Die)" contains this gem, which is played for laughs.
  Here's how it's gonna go —
  We're gonna kick your ass!
  And then, we're gonna
  FUCKING KICK YOUR ASS!
  • Black Friday continues this trend during "Adore Me" in a similar way, sung by the major antagonist Linda Monroe during her height of power.
  I will destroy everything
  And then, I will destroy everything
  I guarantee, I'll destroy everything in my path
  Unless I get what I — SHIT, IT'S GERALD.
• In The Comedy of Errors, Luciana and Antipholus of Syracuse have a rhyming back-and-forth where each seems to rhyme "sister" with "sister." The thing is, these lines are so short that they can be said quickly enough to keep the rhythm before Antipholus drops the real rhyme.
  Luciana: Why call you me “love”? Call my sister so.
  Antipholus: Thy sister's sister.
  Luciana: Thy sister
  Antipholus: No.

Video Games

• Though written, Pokiehl in Legend of Mana tries writing a poem about Watts, but is clearly struggling to come up with anything to say about him. The first three lines all end with the word "helm", and the last doesn't even try to rhyme.
• Occurs twice in the song "Full Tank (All Masters' RAP)" from PaRappa the Rapper:
  Chop Chop Master Onion:
  I need to go just as bad as you
  What I had this morning I don't even wanna say to you
  ...
  Cheap Cheap The Cooking Chicken:
  Crack, break, fix the door, you know.
  I gotta go, so yes open up, ya know!
• River City Girls: "Bully" rhymes "me" with "me":
  Kill the lights, gonna fight, don't you hassle me
  on this ride.
  Feel the spite, won't play nice, don't you bully me,
  You'll want to run and hide.
• In The World Ends with You, the song "Transformation" rhymes over with over. Twice.
  • And the refrain of "Three Minutes Clapping"
    Time, I won't ever give in
    No matter how hard you pull me in
• Suprena in Link: The Faces of Evil rhymes "curse" with "curse".
  This shield both sword and spear deflects, but cannot stop the vilest curse. This crystal makes the shield reflect, cursing the curser with twice the curse.
• The My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic mobile game has normally excellent rhymer Zecora do this when you reach the Everfree Forest for the first time. Spike lampshades it.
• Shantae: Risky's Revenge: Magic Jam Flavor Text: Rhyming List: "Edible":
  It's incredible! It's edible! It's a jar of Magic Jam!
• Street Fighter III: The Third Strike has this on the character selection screen:
  Choose and pick the best one
  Five, four, three, two, one
• Sonic Adventure 2: "E.G.G.M.A.N." rhymes "way" with "way" in its second verse:
  I'm plotting my schemes wherever I go, they're perfect in every way.
  I'd love to destroy the blue one you know, he's an obstacle that always gets in my way.
• Friday Night Funkin': In the bonus vocal track "Fresh (Boyfriend Remix)" on the soundtrack album, The Boyfriend rhymes both "yeah" with "yeah" and "worth it" with "worth it".

  I just want to hold her tight, yeah

  Her hair, her eyes, her thighs, yeah

  If I die, it'll all be worth it

  Just to get a chance to show she's worth it

• Kinect Star Wars features parodies of many popular dance songs, including a recruitment song for the Empire to the tune of "YMCA", which contains the line:
  Vader [beat] can't do it by himself,
  And he's second [beat] to the Emperor himself!

  The original song instead created a rhyme with "himself" by using the contrived phrase "Put your pride on the shelf" (we'd usually say "swallow your pride").

Web Animation

• Homestar Runner:
  • On Strong Bad Sings and Other Type Hits, Strong Bad comments on this during Marzipan's song "Sensitive to Bees," where she rhymes "cute" with "cute" twice in a row, after rhyming it with "fruit".
    Strong Bad: "Cute", "cute" and "cute." You're the poet laureate of-
  • Crackotage generally Rhymes on a Dime, but in Commandos in the Classroom:
    Crackotage: Movie night is my favorite night. I think it is my favorite night. Hee hee hoo hoo!
    Silent Rip: Are you even trying anymore?
    And in an Easter Egg...
    Crackotage: I think my rhymes are truly broke! Broke, broke, broke, broke, broke, broke, broke!
• The JibJab Christmas song "Santa Claus" has one:
  Santa: I'm running out of dough,
  The bills ain't getting paid.
  [camera cuts to Santa in bed with Ma Claus] I can't remember when,
  The last time I got... [Beat, camera cuts back to Santa grabbing dollar bills] paid!
• Animeme Rap Battles: Most Interesting Man vs. Old Spice Guy
  Terry Crews: What rhymes with "Explosion"?
  Another explosion
  Now excuse me, I gotta go work on my tits at Gold's gym.

Web Original

• The theme to the joke "Rorschach and Wolverine" rhymes "psychopath" with itself:
  Rorschach and Wolverine, they make a great team. He's a psychopath, he's also a psychopath. I don't think the premise really works.
• In Horrible Turn, a song rhymes "we can throw shrimp on the barbie" with "I can be Ken, she can be Barbie".
• Harry's song in the Potter Puppet Pals episode "The Vortex", plus "Happy Hogwarts Birthday!!!"
• Conan O'Brien's "Friday" parody, "Thursday", has this for a rapping interlude:
  Rapper:
  Why is there a rapper here?
  Why exactly am I here?
  Did I just rhyme "here" with "here"?
  I am getting out of here!
  Conan: That was a rapper, which makes this a real song!
  Fun fun fun, fun fun fun fun fun....
• Todd in the Shadows complains about this, especially when it's done multiple times in the same song. Though he reacts worse when people "rhyme" words that obviously don't rhyme, no matter how much you distort them.
  • "The Rap Critic" also has gripes when rappers rhyme words with themselves, such as Rick Ross's constantly rhyming lines that end in two, or atlantic with atlantic.
• Friendship is Witchcraft gives us this gem:
  Zecora: Hey there kiddo, don't be sad. This night didn't turn out so s-sad... Just listen to what I've... sai-aid.. And then you won't feel so sad!
• Happens in several of the Epic Rap Battles of History. Whether they induce cringe or turn out to be clever varies.
  • One part of Darth Vader's verse in his 3rd battle against Adolf Hitler makes use of the same phrase with three different meanings, with some help from the beat which ramped up the bass as he went along:
  You wrote a little book, got 'em fired up
  Had a Beer Hall Putsch, got 'em fired up
  When your bunker started getting fired up
  You put a gun in your mouth and fired up!
  • Voltaire also has some fun with this in "Philosophers East vs West":
  Let me be frank:
  Don't start beef with the Frank
  Who hangs with B. Franks
  Giving ladies beef franks!
  • Vladimir Lenin also pulled this against Josef Stalin
  Josef, you were supposed to be my right hand man.
  But your loyalty shriveled up like your right hand, man
  • Both Wayne Gretzky and Tony Hawk pull this on eachother. Wayne's is clever. Tony's is......not.
  Wayne Gretzky: Hey, let me tell you what putting a puck in the net's worth
  Wayne Gretzky: Double what you've banked in bucks, check my net worth

  Tony Hawk: Great one, Wayne
  Tony Hawk: Let me say something Wayne
  Tony Hawk: I got 99 problems but you ain't one, Wayne
  • Michael Bay rhymes "money" with "money" five times (and three of them are "Motherfucking money!"), letting his high energy carries the lines.
  • Indiana Jones uses this trope to diss Lara Croft:
  You took 3D to uncharted territory,
  Now you're just in Uncharted's territory!
• Don't Hug Me I'm Scared:
  • Tony the Clock from is pretty subpar at rhyming.
  Let's go on a journey/a journey through time/a time that's changing all the time/it's time to go to TIME!

  • Earlier, he sings "Time is a ruler to measure the day. It doesn't go backwards, only one way. Watch it go round like a merry-go-round, going so fast like a merry-go-round."
  • In the third:
  Red Guy: Now that we have eaten the chicken, I don't know what to do.
  Duck Guy: Maybe, we should look for our friend. Isn't that what friends do?
  • And in the sixth, when Lamp forces Yellow Guy to have nightmares:
  Lamp: You can have a dream about losing your friends! Or you can have a dream about burning your friends!
  • Exaggerated in the first video, when Sketchbook rhymes "I use my hair to express myself!" with "I use my hair to express myself!"
• "Sex Offender Shuffle":
  I'm not the necrophiliac Arthur Chase
  That's a different Arthur Chase
• On a website of health-related poems for children, there's a case of this.
  The itchy, itchy nose needs a tissue now. Go to the box and get a tissue now. Wipe off your nose and throw the tissue away. Then we go to the sink and wash the germs away.
• In December 2022, the official Royal Mint Twitter feed unveiled the new Charles III pound coin with the "You've heard of elf on the shelf, but have you heard of..." meme. After many guesses about what the phrase was meant to be (King on kaching? King on Ster-ling? Chuck on a buck? And those are just the non-anti-monarchist suggestions), it turned out the answer was "Sovereign on a sovereign".

Western Animation

• In The Simpsons episode "Team Homer," the bowling team has taken to chanting motivational chants at each other during games:
  All but Homer: Come on, Homer! Come on, Homer! / Pretend this is baseball and hit us a homer!
  (Homer gets a strike; they cheer)
  Homer: By the way, guys: rhyming "Homer" with "homer"? (kisses fingers)
  • Another Simpsons example, from a man in love with Marge:
    Lady, when you go away
    It makes me wanna die
    And not dye like your hair is dyed
    But die like Lady Di
    And not die like her name is Di
    But die like when she died
    But, lady, just like Lady Di
    You're my princess tonight
    But don't die.
  • There's also the first lines in a poem Homer came up with:
    There once was a rapping tomato
    That's right, I said "rapping tomato"
    He would rap all day
    From April to May...
    And also, guess what, it was me.
  • In "Treehouse of Horror III," Homer singing his own version of an Oscar Mayer Jingle in the bath:
    My bologna has a first name, it's H-O-M-E-R,
    My bologna has a second name, it's H-O-M-E-R
• The intro theme to She-Ra: the Secret of the Sword.
  • Somewhere out there someone needs me
    I don't know how or where but believe me
    I'll search the universe to find her
    for better or for worse beside her
• Binky wrote a poem in an episode of Arthur as a retort to those who questioned his poetic ability, but just ends every line with the word "poem"^note if you want to get technical, ending every line with the same word or phrase is a valid literary technique, it's just not what you'd use when trying to prove your writing skills to a group of kids who only expect rhyming poems.
• Parodied in Clone High:
  Gandhi: Man, you wanted a kiss, but instead you got bupkis. *Gasp* 'Kiss'...bupkis.' I just totally rhymed! I rhymed! Wait, 'rhymed,' 'rhymed'! I did it again!
  • And indeed, later in the episode, he records a hit song with these lyrics:
    G-Spot rocks the G-Spot!
    G-Spot rocks the G-Spot!
    What's my name? (G-Spot!)
    What do I rhyme? (the G-Spot!)
• In an episode of Stroker and Hoop, Hoop tells a rapper that "technically, 'club' does not rhyme with 'club'."
• In "Der Fuehrer's Face", there is one song verse that rhymes with itself, rhyming "shells" with "shells":
  When der Fuehrer yells,
  "We've got to have more shells!",
  We Heil! Heil!
  For him we make more shells!
• Animaniacs:
  • "The Good-Bye Song":
    We're so sad we've no more time together
    Just to drop an anvil on your head
    And stuff your pockets full of dynamite
    Then tie you to a rhino's head!
  • And then in "Wakko's America":
    Sacramento, California; Oklahoma and its city
    Charleston, West Virginia and Nevada, Carson City!
  • In the theme song to Baloney & Kids:
    Baloney is our friendly friend
    That we made up ourselves,
    He likes to play and sing all day
    That we made up ourselves!
  • In the mashup episode "Animaniacs Stew", the reworked lyrics to the "Pinky and the Brain" theme:
    They're Mindy and the Brain,
    Yes, Mindy and the Brain.
    One's a small child, and the other's ... the Brain.
• The "Good Clean Fun" song on PB&J Otter has "Some routine that is clean / And our clothes not wrinkled / We can stay all pressed and pure / And we won't get wrinkled."
• Jem
  • The song "Come On In, The Water's Fine" rhymes "happen" with itself:
  Something big's been waiting to happen
  Ever since you and I met
  But if we wanna make it happen
  We gotta let our feet get wet
  • "People Who Care" is glaringly obvious in how it rhymes "dreams" with itself.
  Caring people are people with dreams
  Who go to extremes
  To fight for those dreams
• In the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Mayhem of the Music Meister" Black Canary rhymes Man with itself:
  A brave man like no man,
  Be my man...
  Bat-MAN.
  • And:
  A brave man like no man,
  His own man...
  Bat-MAN.
• Steven Universe will sometimes have songs where a word is rhymed with itself. However, when this happens, the words before the re-used word rhyme with each other. For example:
  Who am I now in this world without her?
  Petty and dull with the nerve to doubt her.
• A couple of examples in Phineas and Ferb:
  • Grandpa Clyde explains Bigfoot:
  He goes barefoot so he's always free to stomp ya
  He carries a big stick so he can whomp ya
  Sharpens up those teeth so he can chomp ya
  • As Candace waits by the phone for her boyfriend to call, every rhyme for an entire stanza is the pronoun "me":
  And he doesn't have to call me, he can e-mail me or text me
  But all this hanging by the phone has really vexed me
  I checked my messages, you know how it affects me
  'Cuz finding nothing in my inbox really wrecks me!
  • The kids' rendition of The Trojan War:
  There was a hottie named Helen and she launched a thousand ships with her face!
  Paris took her home to Troy and to the Greeks this was a slap in the face!
• In The Year Without a Santa Claus, Heat Miser's song rhymes "degrees" with "degrees". Snow Miser's song, which is the same tune to almost-the-same lyrics, rhymed it with "freeze", but that obviously wasn't going to work with Heat Miser.
• In Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode "Bloo Done it", Bloo gets jealous over the attention famous imaginary friend Uncle Pockets gets and attempts to imitate his rhyming ability.
  Bloo: "Pssh! Anyone can do that! La-la-la, look at me, dancing around. My name is Bloo. I'm the best...around.
  Mac: "You just rhymed 'around' with 'around'."
  Bloo: (mocking him) "You just wehn ah-meh neh meh-neh."
• In The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack episode "Willy!", this is lampshaded, and then gloriously exaggerated.
  Eight-Armed Willy: You tried stealing my ink, but here is the thing,
  If you just would have asked, you just would have seen
  That I'd give you the ink, if you've just led me sing
  Because the thing is, I just love to sing!
  (The band playing the music stops playing, disappointed.)
  Writer: It's okay, songs don't have to rhyme.
  Eight-Armed Willy: Ha ha! Hit it, fellas!
  Adventure, adventure, adventure, adventure
  Adventure, adventure, adventure, adventure
  Willy, Flapjack and Writers: Adventure, adventure, adventure, adventure
  Adventure, adventure, adventure, adventure
  (A chorus takes the song from there, other voices repeating "Adventure" in a different rhythm.)
• The potty song on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood has "If you have to go to the potty / Stop and go right away / Flush, wash and be on your way."
• Ready Jet Go!: In "How Come the Moon Changes Shape?", Carrot rhymes "my dear" with "my dear" during his duet with Celery.
  "Well I could fix a little dinner, my dear / But this night is such a winner, my dear"
• All Grown Up!: In "The Finster Who Stole Christmas", Tommy and Dil write their own Hanukkah song about latkes (and by the end of the episode, perform it in a church) that ends with this:
  "Hanukkah is coming, so shred those taters fast! / Be thankful it's a holiday, where you don't have to fast!"

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