Chain rhyme

Chain rhyme is a rhyme scheme that links stanzas by repeating a rhyme in two stanzas.

Chain rhyme are an integral part of many verse forms. One such is terza rima, which is written in tercets with a rhyming pattern ABA BCB CDC. Another is the virelai ancien, which rhymes AABAAB BBCBBC CCDCCD.

Quatrains can be written to the following pattern: AABA BBCB CCDC.

A few well-known examples of chain rhyme appear in world literature. In Persian, chain rhyme is devoted to the poetic form of the Rubaiyat: a poem that makes use of quatrains with the rhyme scheme AABA. Though not necessarily chain rhyme, the Rubiyat form has been mimicked throughout the world. Robert Frost made use of Rubaiyat in chain rhyme form in his poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."

Chain rhyme is also known as “chain verse" or "interlocking rhyme". In chain verse the poet repeats the last syllable of a line as the first syllable of the following line. Although the syllable is repeated, it carries a different meaning.