Since there's a wealth of poetry and writing is it not possible to approximate how some words would be pronounced? Also are the no dictionaries or prounounciation guides that survived from the classical era?
Hi, hopefully one of the historical linguistics experts will drop by to address your question about rhyme in more depth, but meanwhile you may be interested in a few threads on Latin pronunciation.
This is the only one I found that asks about rhyme, near the bottom of the thread: What do we know about pronunciation of the latin language?. Otherwise, see the top comment by /u/talondearg
/u/talondearg continues in more depth in this thread Considering how important Oration was to Ancient Roman scholars, how is it that we have no texts regarding the correct pronunciation of the Latin they spoke? [edit: oh OP, I just watched the linked video: there's a reference to using poetic metre]
/u/keyilan adds more in What did Ancient Roman accents sound like?
here are a couple of posts which discuss specific letters: "U-V" What evidence do we have that Romans pronounced the letter 'V' as 'W' in Latin when every other element of the language sounds like Italian? featuring /u/geisendorf, and "A-C-E-R-S" Original pronunciation of "Ceasar"? featuring /u/thatfool
I can't answer the question in sufficient detail, but if you fail to get a response here, I suggest you try asking over in /r/linguistics.
edit: typo