What internal rhyme is

A term you'll meet in poetry and sound.

Internal rhyme is rhyme that falls within a line of verse rather than only at the end. A word in the middle of a line rhymes with the word at its end, or with another word inside the same or a nearby line — weaving extra music through the body of the poem.

The classic example

Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" is the textbook case: "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary." The rhyme of "dreary" and "weary" inside the line gives the verse its hypnotic, incantatory pulse — you feel the rhyme arrive before the line has even ended.

What it does

Internal rhyme speeds a line up and binds it tightly together, adding density and momentum that end-rhyme alone can't. It can create a sense of compulsion or breathlessness, and it rewards reading aloud — much of its effect is lost to a purely silent reader.

End rhyme vs. internal rhyme

End rhyme structures a poem from the margins, marking line-ends and building the rhyme scheme. Internal rhyme works inside the line, often unpredictably, as an extra layer of sound. A poem can use both at once — the end rhymes giving shape, the internal rhymes giving texture.

Where to hear it now

Internal rhyme is central to song lyrics and especially to rap, where dense chains of internal rhyme drive the rhythm and showcase technical skill. Whenever a line seems to chime with itself before it ends, you're hearing internal rhyme at work.

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