What is a initial rhyme?

Answer 1

[Initial Rhyme] means two completely unrelated verse phenomena (guaranteeing that the term is only ever used by people who don't know what they are talking about).

Firstly it can mean a poem where the rimes come at the beginning of each line, rather than at the end. This virtually never happens in real poetry, but can be set as a class exercise by teachers:

WAIT at the

GATE; get this

STRAIGHT, don't be

LATE!!

....

But sometimes [initial rime] is used as an alternative (and very confusing) way of talking about headrime or alliteration - an older way of writing poems in English where an initial consonant was repeated to structure a line (instead of using standard rime - which became the norm during the Fourteenth Century):

In a Somer Seson whan Softe was the Sonne

I Shope me in Shroudes as I a Sheppe were

Habite like an Heremite unHoly in werkes

And Wenden in the Werld Wondres for to seke

And on a May Morning on Malvern hilles

A Ferly me beFell of Faerie methought (William Langland: Piers Plowman)

Answer 2

An initial rhyme is a type of alliteration found in poetry where the initial consonant sound of the stressed syllables in each line or phrase is repeated. This repetition of consonant sounds helps to create rhythm and emphasis in the verse.