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Enclosed rhyme (or enclosing rhyme) is the rhyme scheme ABBA (that is, where the first and fourth lines, and the second and third lines rhyme). Enclosed-rhyme quatrains are used in introverted quatrains, as in the first two stanzas of Petrarchan sonnets.
| How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, |
|
A
|
| Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! |
|
B
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| My hasting days fly on with full career |
|
B
|
| But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. |
|
A
|
- (From John Milton: "Sonnet VII")[1]
"Exposure", by Wilfred Owen,[2] also has a good example of enclosed rhyme. Each of the eight stanzas have the ABBA half rhyming sequence:
| Our brains ache in the merciless iced east winds that knive us ... |
|
A
|
| Wearied we keep awake because the night is silent ... |
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B
|
| Low, drooping flares confuse our memories of the salient ... |
|
B
|
| Worried by silence, sentries whisper, curious, nervous, |
|
A
|
| But nothing happens.
|
