Question

Identify the two words that eye rhyme in this excerpt from "The Brigs of Ayr" by Robert Burns.

The simple Bard, rough at the rustic plough,
Learning his tuneful trade from ev'ry bough;
The chanting linnet, or the mellow thrush,
Hailing the setting sun, sweet, in the green thorn bush;
The soaring lark, the perching red-breast shrill,
Or deep-ton'd plovers grey, wild-whistling o'er the hill
Shall he-nurst in the peasant's lowly shed,
To hardy independence bravely bred,
By early poverty to hardship steel'd.

PLOUGH
BOUGH
THRUSH
BUSH
SHRILL
HILL
BED
BRED

Answer 1

Thrush, Bush;....................

Answer 2

Thrush, Bush

Eye rhyme is when two words look like they should rhyme because they are spelled the same. However, the words do not actually rhyme because they are not pronounced the same. Thrush and bush both have the same ush spelling at the end. Thrush is pronounced with a short u /uh/ sound. Whereas bush has a short /oo/ sound.

Bough and Plough both have the "ow" sound. Shrill and hill both have the short /i/ sound. Shed and bred both have the short /e/ sound.