Rhyme is just one scheme of phonological parallelism out of many. Maybe I should expand upon this for clarity. Phonological parallelism, in this sense, is when similar word sounds occur within or between lines of poetry. Rhyme is a form of this parallelism. For instance, take any rhyming lines of poetry:

The rhyme between “breeze” and “trees” here is a phonological parallelism between these two lines. Such parallelisms can occur within a line or between multiple lines, or even between stanzas or entire texts. What most people are familiar with, however, is the parallelism of rhyme between specific lines within a given stanza. In the example above, we refer to this parallelism as end-line rhyme, because the phonological parallelism is a rhyme which occurs between line endings.

Rhyme is just one type of parallelism available from an array of options. In this article, I explore with you some of the alternatives to rhyme available to you as a poet. The focus is initially on monosyllabic (single syllable) phonological parallelisms. Toward the end we’ll look at some disyllabic (two syllable) phonological parallelisms as well. What I hope you will do is take this information and allow it to influence your creative process when writing poetry. You should be able to devise and make use of, if you like, polysyllabic (three or more syllables) phonological parallelisms on your own once you have ingested the meat of this article by combing the various schemes discussed below.

Seven basic monosyllabic schemes

Including rhyme, there are seven basic monosyllabic phonological parallelisms at your immediate disposal. These are alliteration, assonance, consonance, reverse rhyme, frame rhyme, rhyme, and rich rhyme. Some of these terms will instantly be familiar to you, “alliteration” for instance. Let’s take one of the two lines quoted from Pope’s poem above and modify it slightly using end-line alliteration instead end-line rhyme.

As you can see, the effect of end-line alliteration is different from the effect of end-line rhyme, yet it still has a potency not unlike the potency of rhyme. And, you have an entirely new pool of words to draw from just in using end-line alliteration. Imagine the pool of words that becomes available when all seven of these schemes are considered.

In The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, the article on “Rhyme” sets forth a schema by which the seven phonological schemes introduced above may be recognized and understood. On the accented syllable of a given word, there will often be an opening consonant sound, a medial vowel sound, and a closing consonant sound. This is schematized as C V C, where the first C is the opening consonant sound, V is the medial vowel sound, and the last C is the closing consonant sound. The individual sounds within a word represented by this C V C schema are called phonemes or phonemic clusters, which is how I often refer to them below.

The following table allows us to identify these schemes using the C V C schema. The C V C part or parts that relate to a given scheme will be underlined and bolded, followed by the name of that scheme and three or more illustrative words:

All too often, information like this will be presented without exemplifying it further. I think it can be nice to see schemes such as these actually exemplified as they could be used in lines of poetry because this can help the information to sink in.

Exemplifying the seven basic schemes

The following examples illustrate these schemes one at a time. Each scheme is demonstrated within and between the example lines. So, phonological parallelisms occur within and between lines, at the very least. Understand that my examples are created to suit the purpose, invented off the top of my head and modified to make the best use of a given scheme. I have constructed the examples so that they can be followed and understood syntactically. Though they are intended specifically to illustrate the use of the schemes, I have attempted to make them as interesting and engaging as I can in a way that will hopefully demonstrate each scheme’s ability to convey meaning, invoke response, and affect the reader.

In the examples below the phoneme or phonemic cluster that relates to a given scheme is italicized and underlined.

Alliteration: C V C

Here there are three sets of alliteration, pared/poisoned in the first line, expressing/price in the second line, and sheers/shame between the final syllables.

Note that, despite the different syllabic lengths of some of the words, the alliteration occurs between accented syllables. Alliteration can also occur between accented and unaccented syllables or between unaccented syllables, but this normally will greatly diminish the effect.

Such is the case for all of these schemes. They are used primarily between accented syllables. Using them with unaccented syllables can create interesting effects, but it is a good idea to first practice and play around with each of these schemes strictly between accented syllables in order to gain proficiency with their use and some understanding of their effects.

Assonance: C V C

Here there are five sets of assonance, stars/darkness in the first line, sunrise/wonder in the second line, silent/bright between the first syllables, steady/sends between the fifth syllables, and morn/restored between the final syllables.

Note that I underlined the r phoneme between stars/darkness and morn/restored as part of the assonance. Although grammatically r is considered a consonant, phonologically it acts just like a vowel. Compare dark/stars to dark/stab or dark/snob. The latter two sets just don’t assonate. The effect of the assonance—the similarity of vowel sound—is lost between the words when the r phoneme is omitted. When you have a diphthong (‘diff thong), which is a combination of two or more vowel sounds, assonance is achieved by repeating the entire diphthong, as in corn/bored. If only part of the diphthong is repeated, as in corn/lode, this is what would be called partial assonance. The first six of the seven basic C V C schemes have a partial state, where only part of a given phonemic cluster is repeated. I discuss partial schemes in detail later.

On its own, assonance is the trickiest scheme to work with on account of a greater variance in pronunciation between English dialects. So with this example, I’m aware that some of the pairs may not assonate for all readers. For instance, I’ve heard the first vowel in wonder pronounced the same as the first vowel in sunrise all my life, but I’ve also heard it pronounced the same as the vowel in the word on.

Consonance: C V C

Here there are four sets of consonance, swim/moments in the first line, crash/threshold in the second line, countless/wanton between the eighth syllables, and years/cares between the final syllables.

Note that here I underline the r phoneme between years/cares as part of the consonance. The r phoneme is capable of fulfilling the role of vowel and/or consonant, depending on how and where it is used. Its use as a consonant is especially pronounced when it modifies a consonant or consonant cluster. For instance, compare the s phoneme between cares/face. The s phoneme is softened in cares by the r phoneme and more pronounced in face. Many vowel sounds are capable of affecting the way consonants sound; likewise, many consonants are just as capable of affecting the way vowels sound. It is up to you as the poet to decide where phonological parallels sound agreeable and where they don’t—when they suit your purposes and when they don’t. I could say that the words cares/face are consonant, but they probably are more accurately partially consonant.

As examples continue below, think about the r phoneme and how it affects the sound and shape of adjacent phonemes.

Reverse Rhyme: C V C

Here there are four sets of reverse rhyme, bring/brink in the first line, faith/faded in the second line, storms/restore between the second syllables, and fear/feel between the final syllables.

Frame Rhyme: C V C

Here there are four sets of frame rhyme, sturdy/steed in the first line, fearsome/faces in the second line, soldiers/seldom between the sixth syllables, and field/defiled between the final syllables.

Rhyme: C V C

Here there are four sets of rhyme, spurned/burned in the first line, rise/despise in the second line, rhyme/time between the second syllables, and simple/whimper between the final syllables.

I have rhymed two words here that many would not consider rhymes, simple and whimper. These words do in fact rhyme. I touched on this above, but since not everyone is aware of just what it takes to make a rhyme, I’ll clarify further. The phonological parallelisms of assonance and consonance need only exist between two single syllables, usually accented, for rhyme to occur. If the following syllable does not share this concordance, this does not mean the words lack rhyme, it just means that the rhyme is monosyllabic rather than disyllabic. For instance, pairs like hunting/punter, fainter/plaintive, and silencer/piloting are all monosyllabic rhymes. If the phonological parallelisms carry over into the next syllable, for instance canter/banter and filing/styling, then you have disyllabic rhyme. If the parallelism carries over into three or more syllables, then the rhyme becomes polysyllabic.

Rich Rhyme: C V C

Here there are three sets of rich rhyme, avail/prevail in the first line, gained/regained in the second line, and affair/fare between the final syllables.

As you can see, rich rhyme can occur between parts of words, as with affair and fare. It is not necessarily restricted to correlations between whole words, which is of course the same thing as paronomasia.

Of course, these schemes can be mixed and matched at will:

Here we have two sets of alliteration with fight/fear in the first line and keep/cool in the second line, two sets of rhyme with hold/gold in the first line and never/ever (disyllabic) in the second line, and one frame rhyme with grip/gripe between the final syllables.

Partial schemes

As I hinted at above, these schemes can often be effective even when the phonological parallelisms lack precision. Whenever the phonemes of a scheme are only partially concordant, this can be considered a partial scheme. For instance, as I pointed out before, the words corn and lode represent a partial assonance through the o phoneme. Full assonance here would be achieved by including the r phoneme in the second word to make it corn and lord.

For each scheme, the combinations of partial phonological parallelism are nearly endless, but I think it is worth demonstrating just a couple of combinations from each of the schemes, except rich rhyme. If an occurrence of rich rhyme is partial, then you actually have one of the other six schemes by default. In each of the examples, the phonemic clusters that relate to a given scheme within the C V C schema are underlined while specific phonemes or phonemic clusters that actually correlate between the exemplified words are bolded.

Partial alliteration:

Here there are four sets of partial alliteration: stars/silent in the first line with the s phoneme; shining/shrines also in the first line with the sh phoneme; dreadful/doubts in the second line with the d phoneme; fade/floating and floating/clouds also in the second line with the f and l phonemes, respectively; and light/clouds between the final syllables with the l phoneme again. So, the l phoneme here creates partial alliteration between three words in all, light/floating/clouds.

As you can see, the effect can be quite striking despite the lack of exact alliterative precision.

Partial assonance:

I didn’t use special formatting in this example to highlight the partial assonance because it is not possible to show all of the sounds involved by identifying letters individually. There are three sets of partial assonance used intentionally: noise/force (no eez)/(fo ers) between the second syllables with the o phoneme; keen/conjoined (keen)/(con jo eend) between the fifth syllables with the ee phoneme; and plight/all (plah eet)/(ahl) between the final syllables with the ah phoneme.

There are several more examples of partial assonance there as well, but I passed on mentioning them since they were not used intentionally. Partial assonance is extremely prevalent in natural speech because there are only so many vowel sounds—hence vowel combinations—available. It must also be considered that regional accents will affect vowels and diphthongs much more than they do consonants, making it very difficult implement a scheme of partial assonance that will hold between regions and dialects.

As is often the way with such things, now that you have seen partial assonance further demonstrated and described, it is possible that you’ll suddenly become aware of partial assonance everywhere.

Partial consonance:

Here there are five sets of partial consonance: monsters/stand and ghostly/hosts in the first line with the n phoneme and the st phonemic cluster, respectively; hard/cold and lifelike/craft in the second line with the d and f phonemes, respectively; and hosts/craft between the final syllables with the t phoneme.

You may have noticed that the words hosts and craft were each used more than once—First to partially consonate with one another, and then to partially consonate with another word, ghostly and lifelike, respectfully. I did something similar in the example for partial alliteration above. It is only possible to partially alliterate or consonate a word more than once in this manner when it contains a consonant cluster, such as the sts in hosts and the ft in craft. The effect would not be at all the same if the entire consonant cluster were alliterated or consonated as many times since its overuse would overwhelm the lines. Imagine the impact of using the ft from craft four times between the two lines? The effect would create comedy rather than texture.

Partial reverse rhyme:

Here there are three sets partial reverse rhyme: striking/tightened in the first line with the t and i phonemes; phrases/fade in the second line with the f and a phonemes; and page/space between the final syllables with the p and a phonemes.

Partial frame rhyme:

Here there are three sets of partial frame rhyme: trust/treat between the fourth syllables with the tr phonemic cluster and the t phoneme; guide/gold between the eighth syllables with the g and d phonemes; and life/fluff between the final syllables with the l and f phonemes.

Partial rhyme:

Here there are four sets of partial rhyme: soul/cold in the first line with the o and l phonemes; thoughts/cotton in the second line with the ä and t phonemes; damp/trapped between the fourth syllables with the a and p phonemes; and mist/bliss between the final syllables with the i and s phonemes.

Note that if you had partial assonance as opposed to partial consonance or alliteration with rhyme or reverse rhyme, this changes the scheme entirely. Partial alliteration allows for partial reverse rhyme and partial consonance allows for partial rhyme, but partial assonance with either leaves you with alliteration or consonance only. For instance, if you were to take the partial rhyme between soul and cold and change cold to coil, making only the vowels partially assonant, you end up with pure consonance because the rhyme is lost entirely. If you instead change cold to coiled, you then end up with partial consonance instead of partial rhyme. This is because rhyme, pure or partial, must have pure assonance. The same holds true for reverse rhyme.

This is also part of the reason why rich rhyme can’t be partial. Because if you change anything, like the rich rhyme vane/vain to vane/veins or to vane/van, this ends up being pure reverse rhyme or pure frame rhyme, respectively. Rich rhyme is always in full concordance with the C V C schema. This doesn’t mean you can’t use vane with veins in a poem—The effect may turn out very desirable; it only means this particular phonological parallelism can’t be called partial rich rhyme. To properly describe the scheme, you would have to call it reverse rhyme with partial consonance. Similar would be true for any other deviations of this sort from rich rhyme.

Disyllabic examples

All of these schemes can be extended beyond a single syllable, as I’ve alluded to above. The C V C schema can be made disyllabic by adding a lowercase v c to represent the unaccented second syllable when it doesn’t begin with its own consonant(s) and a lowercase c v c to represent the unaccented second syllable when it does begin with its own consonant(s). Compare paddock (C V C v c) to padlock (C V C c v c).

This table shows some disyllabic renditions of the seven basic schemes:

Disyllabic alliteration requires the use of that first small c (the unaccented portion) in the C V C c v c schema, so no example was provided for the C V C v c schema. Such an example would really amount to monosyllabic frame rhyme anyway, which is exemplified above both in the C V C table and in an illustrative couplet.

The C V C schema is itself just a guideline to help mentally process and understand the phonemic correlations between words. Many words don’t fall strictly under the C V C schema or its disyllabic extensions listed above, yet the schema can still be used to talk about those words. For instance, at and bat still rhyme under C V C, since the first C, not being underlined, can be considered optional to the word in order to fulfill the parallelism. Same goes for any of the phonological schemes that have been covered or that you may devise for yourself using these elements.

What is especially useful about having the schema diagrammed in this manner is that you can now see how various schemes can be blended together for different effects. For instance, you can blend primary (on the accented syllable) alliteration with secondary (on the unaccented syllable) rhyme:

Or maybe you would like to blend primary consonance with secondary assonance:

The possibilities are endless.

Applying alternative schemes

Any of these schemes can be used in place of or in conjunction with an end-line rhyme scheme. For instance, say you come across the rhyme scheme abba; you can assign a to end-line consonance and b to end-line alliteration. Or, if you like, you can assign a to end-line rhyme and b to end-line disyllabic frame rhyme. Wherever you come across a rhyme scheme for a given form, you can enrich and broaden your exploration of that form by using the various schemes introduced in this article in place of or in conjunction with the established rhyme scheme.

As I said when I started this article, rhyme is just one scheme of phonological parallelism out of many. Just one. As you explore the alternative schemes presented here, the small subset of rhyming words is suddenly expanded to include many more word subsets derived from them.

In wrapping up this article, I would like for you to reflect for just a moment on one last thing. Did you see the term “slant rhyme” even once up to this point? No, you haven’t. There is a good reason for this. What is commonly called slant rhyme is in actuality either partial rhyme, consonance, or partial consonance. “Slant rhyme” and its brother, “near rhyme”, are not terms that actually mean anything.