crossed rhyme

crossed rhyme, the rhyming of one word in the middle of a long verse line with a word in a similar position in the next line. Sometimes found in rhyming couplets, crossed rhyme has the effect of making the couplet sound like a quatrain rhyming abab, as in Swinburne's ‘Hymn to Proserpine’ (1866):

Will ye bridle the deep sea with reins, will ye chasten the high sea with rods? Will ye take her to chain her with chains, who is older than all ye Gods?