Reply To: Best JoCo lyric
"Norsemen" / "divorced men" is not, strictly speaking, a rhyme, but not because of the "men" part. Rather, it is because "divorced" (like most past participles) has an "ed" at the end.
You're right in that the word "men" doesn't rhyme with "men." But canonically, you look not at the last syllable but at the last stressed syllable – in this case, the next-to-last syllable, called the penult (ORSS[d]-men). The consonant sounds that begin that syllable must be different.
For example:
"Men" does not rhyme with "amen." "Men" and "amen" both have accents on the last syllable, but they begin with the same consonant sound.
"Ten" rhymes with "amen," though, because the stressed syllable in "ten" begins with "t," and the stressed syllable of "amen" begins with "m".
"Norsemen" does not rhyme with "ten," because the accent in "Norsemen" falls on the next-to-last syllable, and the accent in "ten" falls on the last syllable.
But "Norsemen" rhymes with "horsemen," because they both have accented penults with the same sound.
Say you're rhyming "anticipate." Accent falls on "TIC", so it doesn't rhyme with "bait" or "eight" or "rate" or the like. It also doesn't rhyme with "participate," which has accent in the right place but the same consonant sound ("t"). Acceptable, however, is "dissipate."
(In fact, whether or not the word is compound has nothing to do with the matter. "Stop it!" and "Drop it!" rhyme, because of the accent on the first word, even though they're neither of them compound. And, say, "statecraft" and "liferaft" don't, because the accented syllables don't rhyme, even if the last syllables do.)
Thus, this quickly-dashed-off and rather banal example is acceptable by traditional standards (of verse, I mean, not morality):
The Vikings are Norsemen
Who come out of Norway,
Where forty-three horsemen
Can fit in a doorway
And women divorce men
The Zsa Zsa Gabor way.
(but notice that "divorce" is in the present tense.)
Of course, in this age, no one really holds to these rules all that strictly.
Sorry to ramble.
Edited to say: I really like the "Norsemen" / "divorced men" rhyme, whether or not it is actually a rhyme. I just, you know, really enjoy making myself out to be superior to everyone around me.
(I'm only a little serious about that last line, but I do apologize for lecturing.)