Rhythmic rhyme in "Stand By Me"

This week I have been reading the hymn "Stand By Me," written by Charles A. Tindley in 1905, and I have been noticing something strange, literally. Though most of this post is about a literary observation rather than the hymn itself, the lyrics are powerful, so I'll share them here. While you read them, too, you might notice what I noticed.

When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me
When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me
When the world is tossing me
Like a ship upon the sea
Thou who rules wind and water,
Stand by me.

In the midst of tribulation,
Stand by me
In the midst of tribulation,
Stand by me.
When the hosts of sin assail,
And my strength begins to fail,
Thou who never lost a battle,
Stand by me.

In the midst of faults and failures,
Stand by me
In the midst of faults and failures,
Stand by me
When I've done the best I can
And my friends misunderstand
Thou who knowest all about me,
Stand by me.

When I'm growing old and feeble,
Stand by me
When I'm growing old and feeble,
Stand by me
When my life becomes a burden
And I'm nearing chilly Jordan
O thou Lily of the Valley,
Stand by me.

(Tune: STAND BY ME)

The structure of each stanza is ABABCCDB (see Fig. 1), with the A lines repeating, the B lines repeating (always "Stand by me"), the last words of the C lines rhyming with each other (for example, "assail" and "fail" in the second stanza), and the D line sharing the same meter with the A and C lines but not rhyming with either of them--at least not as we traditionally understand rhymes. I'll get back to that in a second.

Fig. 1: Structure of stanza one
1  When the storms of life are raging,  (A)
2  Stand by me  (B)
3  When the storms of life are raging,  (A)
4  Stand by me  (B)
5  When the world is tossing me  (C)
6  Like a ship upon the sea  (C)
7  Thou who rules wind and water,  (D)
8  Stand by me.  (B)

Further, each line is trochaic, meaning the stress falls on the first beat of each foot (see Fig. 2). In each stanza, lines A, C, and D are tetrameter--they contain four feet--and line B is dimeter, with two feet.

Fig. 2: Meter of stanza two
/  x  /  x  /  x  /  x 
/  x  / 
/  x  /  x  /  x  /  x 
/  x  / 
/  x  /  x  /  x  / 
/  x  /  x  /  x  / 
/  x  /  x  /  x  /  x 
/  x  / 

/ = stressed syllable
x = unstressed syllable

Dictionary.com defines rhyme as "a word agreeing with another in terminal sound." Based on this definition, in each stanza, the only line that doesn't rhyme is line D, since its final sound does not correspond with any other final sounds in the stanza. However, when I read line D, particularly in the last three stanzas, I feel that somehow it does rhyme. In stanza two, for example, it seems like the word "battle" rhymes with a word that comes earlier, though I cannot locate that word.

I believe the rhyming sensation comes from the fact that, though line D ends in a word that doesn't rhyme with any other, line D--like lines A and C-- is tetrameter, whereas line B is dimeter. The movement from dimeter to tetrameter back to dimeter (in Fig. 1, lines 4 through 8) creates a sensation of rhyme when we reach line D's last foot. It is not line D's word or words themselves ("battle," "about me," or "Valley") which rhyme with other words, but their placeholder value, their nature as trochaic feet at the end of a tetramic line. Basically, their feet rhyme with other feet. But the words are important too, since we would never hear the feet without the words that inhabit them.

Some nuances in the hymn slightly change this rhyming effect. The first stanza is the only one containing a line D consisting of seven rather than eight syllables:

Thou who rules wind and water 

/  x  /  /  x  /  x 

Thus, while the line is still trochaic, it doesn't correspond exactly with the other tetramic lines in that stanza, which all have eight syllables. This mismatch eliminates the sensation of rhyme when we reach the word "water." The lines D of the second and third stanzas, however, have eight trochaic syllables, which is why their final words, "battle" and "about me," rhyme both with each other and with the other tetramic lines.

In stanza four, line D also has eight syllables. What's different, though, is that whereas in the first three stanzas lines C contain six syllables, here in the fourth stanza lines C both contain eight syllables, just like line D. Though here line D's contrast is not as distinct from surrounding lines as in the second and third stanzas, line D still rhymes. This suggests that we hear rhythmic rhymes clearly when lines of diverse rhythms surround it (the dimetric nature of lines B is in this case very helpful) and when the rhyming line's stress pattern corresponds as closely as it can with its parallel lines. Here, those parallel lines are the A lines, whose repetition further strengthens the rhyme effect of line D because line D's final word surprises us by being something different than line A's final word.

Because rhythm is integral to sound in poetry, we can broaden the definition of rhyme to include words that correspond with each other through their rhythmic structure. 

Tindley's hymn asks God to stand by us when storms thrash us, tribulations attack us, friends misunderstand us, and death looms around us. We might see in the lines of this hymn an image of God standing with us: although lines D end with words that do not traditionally rhyme, the lines still belong in the hymn because they correspond rhythmically with lines A and C and contrast rhythmically with lines B, creating a new kind of rhyme. Further, their differences emphasize the message of their words. When we are disjointed or feel out of step, may we discover God standing by us, empowering us to rhyme.