Rhyme, pararhyme, assonance and reserve rhyme

Pararhyme is a half-rhyme in which there is vowel variation within the same consonant pattern.

"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:

It seemed that out of battle I escaped

Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped

Through granites which titanic wars had groined.

Yet also there encumbered sleepers groaned.

Too fast in thought or death to be bestirred.

Then, as I probed them, one sprang up, and stared

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. The pairs of words sail/seal, more/mere, pole/pale, bar/beer are all examples of pararhyme.

• 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. The pairs of words sail/seal, more/mere, pole/pale, bar/beer are all examples of pararhyme.

Reverse Rhyme (beginning rhyme)

A pair of words in which the first accented vowels and all prior sounds match while the following consonants differ.

Words and phrases that rhyme with reserve: 1 syllable: curve, d'oeuvre, doeuvre, herve, irv, irve, j-curve, jerrv, kerve, kurve, lurve, merv, mirv, nerve, oeuvre, perve, s-curve, serv, serve, slurve, spurv, sterve, swerve, verve, zurve.

• Words and phrases that rhyme with reserve: 1 syllable: curve, d'oeuvre, doeuvre, herve, irv, irve, j-curve, jerrv, kerve, kurve, lurve, merv, mirv, nerve, oeuvre, perve, s-curve, serv, serve, slurve, spurv, sterve, swerve, verve, zurve.