Enclosed rhyme

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.

Example

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, A

Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! B

My hasting days fly on with full career, B

But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. A

(From John Milton's "On His Being Arrived to the Age of Twenty-Three")

See also

• Rhyme scheme