MASCULINE Rhyme, in the French poetry, is that made with a word which has a strong, open, and accented pronunciation; as all words have, excepting those which have an e feminine in their last syllable. For instance, amour and jour, mort and sort, are masculine rhymes; and pere and mere, gloire and memoire, are feminine. Hence also verses ending with a masculine rhyme, are called masculine verses, and those ending with a feminine rhyme, feminine verses. It is now a rule established among the French poets never to use the above two masculine or two feminine verses successively, except in the looser kind of poetry. Marot was the first who introduced this mixture of masculine and feminine verses, and Ronsard was the first who practised it with success. The masculine verses should always have a syllable less than the feminine ones.