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Rhyme nor reason
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Rhyme nor reason

Meaning

A thing which has neither rhyme nor reason makes no sense, from either a poetic or logical standpoint.

Origin

This line originates in Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors, 1590:

DROMIO OF SYRACUSE:
Was there ever any man thus beaten out of season,
When in the why and the wherefore is neither rhyme nor reason?

The bard must have liked the line as he used it again in As You Like It, 1600:

ROSALIND: But are you so much in love as your rhymes speak?
ORLANDO: Neither rhyme nor reason can express how much.

See other phrases and sayings from Shakespeare.