Pararhyme is aform of rhyme in which there is vowel variation within the sameconsonant pattern.
"Strange Meeting" (1918) is a poem byWilfred Owen, a war poet who used pararhyme in his writing. Here is a part of the poem that shows pararhyme:
Pararhyme features in the Welshcynghanedd poetic forms. The following short poem byRobert Graves is a demonstration in English of thecynghanedd groes form, in which each consonant sound before thecaesura is repeated in the same order after the caesura (Graves notes that thess of 'across' and thes of 'crows' match visually but are not the same sound):
James Joyce uses a pararhyme inFinnegans Wake (1939) when he says: "First we feel. Then we fall."
Stephen Sondheim, the composer and lyricist, was also well known for using pararhyme, particularly within a line, and not at the end. Examples include: Pinch/punch/paunch/pension(/pouch) from "The Miller's Son," say/so/soy/see and little/latte/later/lotta in "The Waiter's Song," woke/weak/walk in "Love, I Hear,"and fits/fights(/feuds) in "Together Wherever We Go."