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Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare. The rhyming employed in this poem can be summarized as containing:

A) Exclusively exact rhymes
B) Exclusively sight rhymes
C) Neither sight rhymes nor exact rhymes
D) Some exact rhymes and some sight rhymes

1 Answer

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Final answer:

The rhyme scheme of Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 includes both exact rhymes and sight rhymes, due to changes in pronunciation over time.

Step-by-step explanation:

The rhyming employed in William Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 can be categorized as D) Some exact rhymes and some sight rhymes. A Shakespearean sonnet typically follows the rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg, which features exact rhymes at the end of lines. However, in practice, over the centuries since the sonnets were written, some of these may function as sight rhymes because pronunciation has evolved, possibly altering how certain words are said aloud. Sight rhymes are words that look like they should rhyme because of their spelling but may not sound exactly the same when spoken. It is important to note that sight rhymes would still have been considered exact rhymes at the time Shakespeare was writing.

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