Join FunTrivia for Free: Hourly trivia games, quizzes, community, and more!
Fun Trivia
Ask FunTrivia: Questions and Answers
Answers to 100,000 Fascinating Questions
Welcome to FunTrivia's Question & Answer forum!

Search All Questions


Please cite any factual claims with citation links or references from authoritative sources. Editors continuously recheck submissions and claims.

Archived Questions

Goto Qn #


In the opening lines of W. B. Yeats' "The Second Coming" are the words "gyre" and "falconer" regarded as rhymes, and how to pronounce them?

Question #132950. Asked by urbankheki.
Last updated Apr 14 2017.
Originally posted Oct 19 2013 3:32 AM.

avatar
sportsherald star
Answer has 3 votes
Currently Best Answer
sportsherald star
13 year member
710 replies avatar

Answer has 3 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
Most of the lines in that poem rhyme "imperfectly," or as "off rhymes," (see link http://www.kingsnews.org/articles/off-rhymes-and-true-rhymes) if at all, as is seen in the following first verse:

'Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.'

link http://www.potw.org/archive/potw351.html

As for their pronunciation, "falconer" is pronounced as one might expect, while "gyre" is pronounced just like the first syllables of "gyroscope" or "gyrate." See link http://www.tfd.com/falconer and link http://encyclopedia.tfd.com/gyre, which include audio pronunciations of the words (American and British versions). In my view, "gyre" and "falconer" do not rhyme, although they do share a final "r" sound.

Response last updated by CmdrK on Apr 14 2017.
Oct 19 2013, 12:22 PM
free email trivia FREE! Get a new mixed Fun Trivia quiz each day in your email. It's a fun way to start your day!


arrow Your Email Address:

Sign in or Create Free User ID to participate in the discussion