We have pararhyme when the final syllable
in two lines of a poem not only ends with the same consonant but begins with
the same consonant, even though the vowel sounds in the two syllables are not
the same. Pararhyme - the
word was coined by the poet Edmund Blunden (1896-1974) - is sometimes
called partial rhyme or imperfect rhyme. It can be
distinguished from half-rhyme.
We have half-rhyme when
the final syllable in two lines of poetry ends with the same consonant but the
vowel sounds in these syllables and the consonants preceding the vowel sounds
are different. The pairs of words mad/bed, peal/maul, hate/pot, and game/home
are all examples of half-rhyme.
"Strange
Meeting" (1918) is a poem by Wilfred Owen, a war poet who used
pararhyme in his writing. Here is a part of the poem that shows pararhyme:
Too fast in thought or
death to be bestirred.
Then, as I probed them, one
sprang up, and stared
With piteous recognition in
fixed eyes,
Lifting distressful hands,
as if to bless.
And by his smile, I knew
that sullen hall,
By his dead smile I knew we
stood in Hell.
The pararhyme scheme
of Strange Meeting has a twofold effect on the reader
