What is the meaning of alternate rhyme?

Answer 1

Alternate rhyming is also called "cross rhyming", meaning the lines alternate between two rhyming words as in abab. The effect created is that of an echo or a return to the rhyme in a pattern that makes the ear expect the rhyme without being as repetitious as a string of couplets. In other words, it delays the rhyme by inserting another rhyme as in a cross stitch or a round, where you have two rhyming words that "cross" between each other. For example:

All I have I give to you

you mean the world to me

and everything I say or do

I do so willingly

There are often terms for a specific style or rhyme pattern that most people don't know because they use their ears and memory and don't really study the form. For example, the pattern ABBA is also called "envelope rhyme", or "arched rhyme" meaning the couplet in the middle, "bb", is enveloped withing the outer rhyme of "a__a", or that the pattern creates an "arch". The pattern "ababbcc" is called "rhyme royal", and "aaab cccb" is called "chain rhyme". Each of these, in combination with the meter or cadence of the poem, creates a specific mood, tone or feeling. This is why it's important to match the style of the poem to the topic and effect you want to create. You wouldn't want to write a serious poem about death using a nursery rhyme style...unless you were trying to create a specific feeling that required the apparent mis-match of topic and style.

--GINALYN USON TAN--

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