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Displaced rhyme

Rhyme
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Rhyme that occurs away from the expected or conventional position in a line

Detailed Definition
Displaced rhyme occurs when rhyming words are separated by more than one line or appear in unexpected positions—such as line 1 rhyming with line 5—creating suspense or surprise; common in slant-rhyme free verse and complex forms like terza rima, it maintains sonic cohesion without the predictability of adjacent rhymes, allowing for greater structural innovation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Rhyming "light" in line 3 with "night" in line 7 instead of adjacent lines; Internal rhyme where "sea" in mid-line rhymes with "free" at end of next stanza; A slant rhyme between "stone" (line 1) and "own" (line 5); Rhyming the first word of a stanza with the last word of the previous one; A poem where rhymes appear every third line irregularly
Additional Notes
Displaced rhyme occurs when rhyming words are separated by more than one line or appear in unexpected positions (e.g., line 1 and 4); creates suspense or surprise; common in slant-rhyme free verse or complex forms like terza rima; students should track rhyme placement to understand structural innovation; differs from "twin rhyme" (adjacent) and "out-of-time rhyme" (temporal disjunction).
Also Known As
deferred rhyme off-position rhyme latent sonic echo non-simultaneous rhyme temporally displaced rhyme Time-displaced rhyme
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