Internal rhyme
Internal rhyme is the matching of sounds inside a single line, or between a word in the middle of a line and the word at its end.
Poe rhymes "remember" in the middle of the line with "December" at its end.
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven", 1845
What it is
In internal rhyme the sound repeats inside the line, so the poem keeps chiming even between end rhymes. It is related to assonance, which repeats vowel sounds, and consonance, which repeats consonants.
Why it matters to a writer or editor
Internal rhyme speeds a line up and makes it memorable. It is also easy to overdo. If the chiming starts to draw more attention than the meaning, thin it out.
Frequently asked questions
Can internal rhyme be used in prose?
Yes, in small amounts. Writers use it to give a sentence a chime, but too much sounds like verse.