History Main / RhymingWizardry

This is a SubTrope to MagicalIncantation, RhymesOnADime, and WordsCanBreakMyBones, creating a Venn diagram intersection between the three supertropes. See also the sister trope PropheciesRhymeAllTheTime.

* {{Parodied}} in ''Film/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone''. Normally ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' spell incantations are of the LatinIsMagic variety, but Ron Weasley and Seamus Finnegan both attempt to cast rhyming incantations with poor results.
** Ron attempts a spell given to him by one of his prankster older brothers to turn his pet rat Scabbers yellow: ''"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow / Turn this stupid fat rat yellow!"'' All that happens is that the candy box Scabbers has his head inside is knocked away.
--->'''Hermione:''' Are you sure that's a ''real'' spell? Well, it's not a very good one, is it?
** Seamus repeatedly chants ''"Eye of rabbit, harp string hum / Turn this water into rum"'' over a cup of water at breakfast. Ron is in the middle of explaining that Seamus actually managed a weak tea yesterday when [[MadeOfExplodium the water suddenly explodes in Seamus's face]].

** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'': Subverted; Ron attempts a spell with a rhyming incantation (''"Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid, fat rat yellow"''), but it has no effect. He thinks it may not even be a real spell, considering he learned it from his trickster brothers. It certainly doesn't follow the pattern of other spells in the series, which have short (one- or two-word) incantations.

-->'''Alexandra:''' ''Girls, I'm turning off your ears/What comes next, only Alex hears.''

-->''I ducked behind the counter. There are few things more dangerous than a carelessly rhyming unicorn, for any couplet might carry a spell.''
-->''"Oh get up, get up," the stallion grumbled. "Thinkest thou I cannot control potent poetry?"''

-->'''Fiona:''' ''By night one way, by day another, this shall be the norm; then you find true love's first kiss, and then take love's true form.''
-->'''Donkey:''' That's beautiful, I didn't know you wrote poetry.
-->'''Fiona:''' (sadly) It's a spell.

-->'''Queen:''' Dip the apple in the brew... let the poison death seep through.
-->'''Queen:''' When she rips the tender peel to taste the apple from my hand... her breath will still, her blood congeal, then I'll be fairest in the land!

-->''Flower, gleam and glow''
-->''Let your power shine''
-->''Make the clock reverse''
-->''Bring back what once was mine''

-->'''Cam (''reading from notebook''):''' ''"To make an object disappear, tap it twice and say 'Oh dear'"?''
-->'''Alex:''' What? I was seven when I wrote that! Give me some credit that it even rhymed.

-->''Double, double toil and trouble;''
-->''Fire burn, and cauldron bubble''

** In the final scene of the play, Oberon and Titania lead the fairies through Theseus' palace after the three couples went to bed, casting a spell to bless the palace and its inhabitants with peace, marital fidelity and healthy children: "With this field dew consecrate / Every fairy take his gait / And each several chamber bless / Through this palace with sweet peace / And the issue they create / Ever shall be fortunate / So shall all the couples three / Ever true in loving be."

--->'''Witches:''' ''Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble.''
--->'''Yakko:''' Loosely translated, "Abracadabra".
--->'''Dot:''' ''Fillet of a fenny snake, in the cauldron boil and bake.''
--->'''Yakko:''' "Let's cook a snake." Start with my agent.

--->'''Pablo:''' Fippity, foopity, pecan pie!
--->'''Tyrone:''' Magic wands, make us fly!

-->''"[[Theatre/{{Macbeth}} Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble!]]"''
-->''Eye of needle, tongue of shoe, hand of clock that points at two!''
-->'''[aside to one of the nephews]''' "This is the real thing, y'know; right out of Shakespeare!"

--> '''Presto:''' ''I'll fiddle with my twiddle and diddle with the middle and make a magic riddle that'll turn the giant little.''
--> '''Eric:''' Oh great. Now he's doing nursery rhymes.''

-->'''Mad Jack''': "Now, I don't know much about magic, but if memory serves, the spells usually rhyme".

--> ''Wither and decay,''
--> ''End this destiny.''
--> ''Break these earthly chains,''
--> ''And set the spirit free.''

* In the first ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' film, Fiona recites the spell that condemned her to turn into an ogre at night; Donkey thinks she is reciting poetry.

** In the final scene of the play, Oberon and Titania lead the fairies through Theseus' palace after the three couples went to bed, casting a spell to bless the palace and its inhabitants with peace, marital fidelity and healthy children: "With this field dew consecrate,/ Every fairy take his gait,/ And each several chamber bless / Through this palace with sweet peace./ And the issue they create / Ever shall be fortunate,/ So shall all the couples three / Ever true in loving be."

* ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'': When [[TheTrickster Puck]] sprinkles Oberon's love-juice potion on the sleeping Titania's eyes, he recites a spell in rhyming couplets: "What thou seest when thou dost wake, Do it for thy true love take. Love and languish for his sake. Be it ounce or cat or bear, Pard or boar with bristled hair, In thy eye that shall appear, When thou wakest, it is thy dear." It's unclear whether or not the incantation is required to make the potion work, as Puck speaks in this kind of rhyme for the majority of the play.

* ''ComicBook/TheDefenders'': Subverted in the ''ComicBook/ReturnOfTheDefenders'' storyline in the 1992 annuals for ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk, ComicBook/SubMariner, ComicBook/SilverSurfer, and ComicBook/DoctorStrange titles, after Strange cast a spell, Namor notes how it did not remotely rhyme, and Strange chastises him for expecting it to.

* ''ComicBook/{{Etrigan}}'': Both the abridged and full versions of the incantations Jason Blood must yell to transform into Etrigan and back consist of rhymes.
-->''"Gone! Gone! -- the form of man. Rise, the Demon Etrigan!"''

* Done in a ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' [[http://www.yourdailymedia.com/video/watch/4715/ parody of]] ''Literature/HarryPotter''. Example: When Snape tries to seduce Hermione in his "magical jacuzzi", he calls it forth with the spell, ''"[=BarryWhiteus=], candlelightus, girl-exciteus!"'' She dispells his lecherous advance with the counterspell, ''"Pedophilius repelus!"''

* ''WesternAnimation/TangledTheSeries'': In ''"[[Recap/TangledTheSeriesS2E14RapunzelAndTheGreatTree Rapunzel And The Great Tree]]"'', Rapunzel recites and eventually sings the lyrics of the Hurt, a.k.a Reverse, a.k.a Decay Incantation when visiting The Great Tree. As she sings, her hair and eyes turn black and everything in the room begins to decay. It's an ABCB rhyme:

* The kids in ''WesternAnimation/DragonTales'' use two of these in conjunction with a magical dragon scale to {{teleport|ationWithDrawbacks}} between Earth and Dragon Land.
** To get to Dragon Land, they said this:
-->''I wish, I wish, with all my heart, to fly with dragons in a land apart!''
** And to get back home, they said this:
-->''I wish, I wish, to use this rhyme, to go back home until next time!''

* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': Most spoken spells are done in rhyme, although other magic can be done with a simple physical gesture (usually finger pointing, although a few mages have different ones). The episode "Oh What A Tangled Spell She Weaves" [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the practice, as Sabrina's Quizmaster requires her to use verse incantations for every magical task for a week. This leads to some [[PainfulRhyme painful rhyming]]: for example, Sabrina raises the temperature with "No spells at school unless I gotta, and I do, so make it...hotta."

* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'': Most spoken spells are done in rhyme, although other magic can be done with a simple physical gesture (usually finger pointing, although a few mages have different ones). The episode "Oh What A Tangled Spell She Weaves" [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the practice, as Sabrina's Quizmaster requires her to use verse incantations for every magical task for a week. This leads to some [[PainfulRhyme painful rhyming]]: Sabrina raises the temperature with "No spells at school unless I gotta, and I do, so make it...hotta."

%%* ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'': "What thou seest when thou dost wake, Do it for thy true love take. Love and languish for his sake. Be it ounce or cat or bear, Pard or boar with bristled hair, In thy eye that shall appear, When thou wakest, it is thy dear."
%% We need context for Midsummer Nights Dream quote above.

[[caption-width-right:250:''Now my Lizard Wizard, make a gizzard blizzard!'']]

-->'''Cam:''' ''(reading from notebook)'' "To make an object disappear, tap it twice and say 'Oh dear'"?''