What Rhymes with Heaven?

There are some other creative things that you can do with rhymes. One method that is sometimes used in called an internal rhyme. This is when you have two words that you rhyme on purpose in the same line of the song. Here's an example:

Give My Love
Words and music by
Christa and Tim Heider
(c) 2004

Vs. 1
God above, God of love----------A
You freely gave Your life away--B
A sacrifice to show the way-----B
That is why I sing--------------C
Vs. 2
Perfect One, God's own Son----A
Came to earth to set me free---B
For the life you gave to me-----B
That is why I sing--------------C
Why I sing---------------------C

Did you see it? It's in the first line of both verses--above and love in the first verse and One and Son in the second verse. Notice that each rhyme in the line comes right in the middle--it is in the middle of the phrase. This just adds a little interest to the song.

The most common type of rhyme is the end rhyme, where the last letter and last vowel sound are the same, such as "son,""one,""begun," etc. Unfortunately, there are only so many rhymes in the English language, and most of them have been used over and over again. There are some ways to get around this, however.

You could be especially creative in forming the lines of your song to incorporate less common rhymes, such as "one" and "carnation." But that rather uncommon word in a song would have to fit the theme or the line won't make sense, no matter how creative you are. For instance, "Perfect One, like a white carnation" in reference to God probably wouldn't work too well. True, there could be a connection between perfection and the white pedals of a flower, but actually using that phrase is stretching the line of thought a little too thin. The listener should be able to follow the thought of the song easily without having to do any mental gymnastics.

For some words, there just aren't very many rhymes. For instance, what rhymes with "Heaven"? According to the rhyme dictionary on my computer, there are 20 words that rhyme with heaven, but most of them are words that would be difficult to use, such as "Beethoven," "cordovan," and "riboflavin." Very difficult to use in a Christian song. The word most often used to rhyme with "heaven" is "seven" but even the usage of that is limited. What do you do?

In a case like this, you can use false rhymes--words that almost rhyme, but not quite. You'll need a rhyming dictionary for this (check your local bookseller, or the internet.) Now, think of a word that is similar to "heaven", that sounds the same, but maybe with a different consonant on the end. How about "send?" The "n" on heaven and "d" on send are similar enough where you can make a false rhyme out of them. If you don't want to use "send" in your song check your rhyming dictionary to find a word that rhymes with it. It's not a perfect rhyme, but it can get you out of a bind if you just can't come up with a rhyming word.

Tim Heider


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