Para-rhyme:   Para-rhyme (or half-rhyme) is a rhyme that does not rhyme fully, but chooses to use similar rather than identical sounds, for effect

It is a form of rhyme where the sounds are similar, but not identical. (e.g. stare, store, stall)

 

Example 1  From everyday speech:

Para-rhyme can be found in advertising slogans

                            beanz meanz Heinz

 

Example 2 From literature:  The rhyme is marked in brackets

                        

                        Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade (a)

                        How cold the steel is, and keen with hunger of blood; (a)

                        Blue with all malice, like a madman's flash; (b)

                        And thinly drawn with famishing flesh. (b)

                        

                                        from Arms and the Boy by Wilfred Owen

 

NOTE:   The para-rhyme has two effects. 

                It gives the poem a slightly jarring edge, throwing the reader slightly off balance - it is unexpected. 

                Also in this poem, it forms strong links between the blade and the blood, and the madman's flash drawn on the flesh.  The connections between the items and the actions are strengthened by this use of the language.

 

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