Schuttelreim

Schuttelreim is a German poetic device synonymous with the word play technique of Spoonerisms, named for English educator W.A. Spooner 1844-1930, which is the swapping of the beginning sounds of 2 different words such as big rats/rig bats. The Shuttlereim takes spoonerism a step further and in a rhymed couplet, the initial consonant of the last 2 words of the first line are reversed in the second line. The device is most often used in light verse.

The Schuttelreim is:
• a single rhyming couplet.
• rhymed, switching the initial consonants of the last 2 words in the first line with the initial consonants of the last 2 words in the second line.

Springtime’s triad — thrush, lake, dove,
tell the sunlight their dark love.
— Robin Skelton (from Shapes of our Singing)

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?/topic/1082-schuttelreim/
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

German and Austrian Poetic Forms:

Bar Form, Dinggedicht, Goliardic VerseKnittelvers, Minnesang, Nibelungen, Schuttelreim

My example

Believe in truest loving trust
Beware the ever thrusting lust.

© Lawrencealot – October 26, 2014

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