Cross rhyme
The cross rhyme or alternating rhyme is a rhyme form in the verse , in which the odd-numbered verses rhyme with each other and also the even- numbered verses in a (usually four-line ) stanza . The rhyme scheme is therefore the result of the quatrain [abab], with the six-liner [ababab]etc. Example ( Conrad Ferdinand Meyer Zwei Segel , 1882):
[a] Illuminating two sails
[b] The deep blue bay!
[a] Two sails swelling
[b] Too easy escape!
[c] Like one in the winds
[d] Arches and moves
[c] Will the feeling too
[d] The other's excited.
[e] Desires to have one
[f] The other goes quickly
[e] Asks one to rest
[f] His companion also rests.
An example of a poem with a quadruple cross rhyme ([abababab]) is the Latin Ave verum .
If only the even-numbered verses rhyme ([xaxa]) this is known as half rhyme or cross rhyme . This rhyme order appears often in folk songs . Example ( Heinrich Heine my heart, my heart is sad ):
[x] My heart, my heart is sad
[a] But May shines merry;
[x] I stand leaning against the linden tree
[a] Up on the old bastion.
The cross rhyme is one of the most common rhyme orders besides the pair rhyme . It can be found in the four-line folk song strophe , the vagante strophe , the Hildebrand strophe , the romances strophe and as part of larger rhymes such as the Luther strophe .
literature
- Otto Knörrich: Lexicon of lyrical forms (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 479). 2nd, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-520-47902-8 , p. 124.
- Christian Wagenknecht: German metric. A historical introduction. 5th edition Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55731-6 , p. 42.
- Gero von Wilpert : Subject dictionary of literature. 8th edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-520-84601-3 , p. 861.