In poetry, internal rhyme, or middle rhyme, is rhyme that occurs in a single line of verse.
An internal rhyme is a rhyme involving a word in the middle of a line and another at the end of the line or in the middle of the next.
Internal rhyme schemes were extremely common in popular song of the Swing Era. One familiar example is the bridge from "Don't Fence Me In," written by Cole Porter for the film "Hollywood Canteen" in 1944:
Just turn me loose let me straddle my old saddle,
Underneath the western skies,
On my cayuse let me wander over yonder,
'Til I see the mountains rise.
Internal rhyme is used extensively in rap/hip hop music. The usage of internal rhyme in rap has increased over time, but can be found even in the earliest rap songs, such as the Sugarhill Gang's 1979 single, Rapper's Delight:
I'm six-foot-one and I'm tons of fun and I dress to a T
You see, I got more clothes than Muhammad Ali and I dress so viciously
I got body guards, I got two big cars, I definitely ain't the whack
I got a Lincoln Continental and a sun-roofed Cadillac
So after school, I take a dip in the pool, which is really on the wall
I got a color TV, so I can see the Knicks play basketball
Internal rhyme is used frequently by many different hip hop artists, including Kool Moe Dee, Big Daddy Kane, and Rakim, as demonstrated in Eric B. and Rakim's 1987 piece, "My Melody" from their debut album Paid In Full:
My unusual style will confuse you a while
If I were water, I'd flow in the Nile
So many rhymes you won't have time to go for yours
Just because of applause I have to pause
Right after tonight is when I prepare
To catch another sucker-duck MC out there
My strategy has to be tragedy, catastrophe
And after this you'll call me your majesty...
Another prominent hip hop artist who uses internal rhymes is AZ, as shown in "The Hardest":
Im the rap James Bond
my crack case gone
got it cuffed in the court
had my mac face on
funny walk money talk told Black stay calm
we up north like a boss tatted half his arms
slid his mom 7 grand told her hold that down
we fam it go low then i roll back 'round
am as vicious as the realest you know
only difference is consistence im considered a pro
from the trenches 'till im dead and inches below
its not a game hear the name bet it's mentioned wit dough you never know
Famous quotes containing the words internal and/or rhyme:
“Personal change, growth, development, identity formation—these tasks that once were thought to belong to childhood and adolescence alone now are recognized as part of adult life as well. Gone is the belief that adulthood is, or ought to be, a time of internal peace and comfort, that growing pains belong only to the young; gone the belief that these are marker events—a job, a mate, a child—through which we will pass into a life of relative ease.”
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)
“We have our little theory on all human and divine things. Poetry, the workings of genius itself, which, in all times, with one or another meaning, has been called Inspiration, and held to be mysterious and inscrutable, is no longer without its scientific exposition. The building of the lofty rhyme is like any other masonry or bricklaying: we have theories of its rise, height, decline and fall—which latter, it would seem, is now near, among all people.”
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)