The Pearl Poet

There's a funny old term for alliteration: head rhyme. The Old English poetry relied on head rhyme for it's most striking effect. During the time of Middle English, a transition occurred to "normal" rhyme. There were actually some transitional poems, including "The Pearl," which uses both techniques at once:

Perle, pleasaunte to prynces paye
To clanly clos in golde so clere,
Oute of oryent, I hardyly saye,
Ne proued I neuer her precios pere.

Tolkien rendered it this way:

Pearl of delight that a prince doth please
To grace in gold enclosed so clear
I vow that from over orient seas
Never proved I any in price her peer.

Another transitional poem, probably by the same author, is "Sir Gawain and The Green Knight." Here, the main narrative is head rhyme, but each verse paragraph is ended with a quatrain in end rhyme.

Challenging was this change in chime.
Gallantly, he got along with the game,
Switching from starting the sounds the same
To rendering the rear in rhyme.