In poetry, internal rhyme, also called middle rhyme, is when words that rhyme appear within the same line of a poem or between parts of different lines. End rhyme happens when the last words of lines rhyme.

Internal rhyme patterns can be shown using commas or spaces. For example, "ac,ac,ac" shows a three-line poem where each line has the same internal rhyme and the same end rhyme. The internal rhyme and end rhyme in this example do not rhyme with each other.

Examples

The limerick below uses stressed syllables that rhyme with each other. Three different rhyme groups are shown with different colors. The yellow group rhymes within lines 1, 2, and 5, and also rhymes at the end of lines 3 and 4. The blue group rhymes only within lines, and the pink group rhymes only at the end of lines.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" includes lines with internal rhymes, such as "The guests are met, the feast is set"; "The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared"; and "It cracked and growled, and roared and howled." Internal rhymes were a common feature in the work of 19th-century poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, for example, in "God's Grandeur":

Percy Dearmer (1867–1936) revised John Bunyan’s (1628–1688) poem "To Be a Pilgrim" in 1906. It became a popular hymn when Charles Winfred Douglas (1867–1944) set it to music in 1917. Here are Dearmer’s lyrics, with internal rhymes shown in bold. In the three quatrains, the internal rhymes also match the end rhymes (also shown in bold).

In comic operas written with Arthur Sullivan, W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) used internal rhymes in some song lyrics. For example, Bunthorne’s solo aria from Patience begins:

Internal rhymes were common in songs from the Swing Era. One example is the bridge from "Don’t Fence Me In," written by Cole Porter for the 1944 film Hollywood Canteen:

Bob Dylan often used internal rhymes in his lyrics, such as in "Subterranean Homesick Blues":

And "Like a Rolling Stone":

Other pop, rock, and rhythm and blues lyricists from the 1960s and 1970s used internal rhymes less often than Dylan, such as Smokey Robinson in "The Tears of a Clown" ("In order to shield my pride, I’ve tried") and Carly Simon in "Anticipation" ("When I was thinking about how right tonight might be").

Internal rhymes are widely used in rap and hip-hop music and sometimes overlap with assonance. This technique has become more common over time but appears even in early rap songs, such as the Sugarhill Gang’s 1979 single "Rapper’s Delight":

Many hip-hop artists use internal rhymes frequently, including Kool Moe Dee, Big Daddy Kane, Nas, and Rakim. This is shown in Eric B. and Rakim’s 1987 song "My Melody" from their album Paid in Full:

Another hip-hop artist who uses complex internal rhymes is AZ, as shown in "The Format":

Black Thought, a rapper from The Roots, uses internal rhymes in the song "Respond/React":

MF Doom uses almost every word as an internal rhyme in this verse from his song "Figaro" (rhymes are highlighted):

Kool Keith uses internal rhymes heavily in his song "3000" and effectively confuses listeners:

Bad Lip Reading uses internal rhymes in their comedic song "My Stick":