Rhyme Scheme

Evaluating Poetry

What Is Rhyme Scheme?

Rhyme Scheme is the term we use to refer to the pattern of rhyming words in a poem or a song.

When you are asked to identify the rhyme scheme for a poem, you’ll need to look at the last word in each line of poetry and determine which words rhyme with one another.

How is Rhyme Scheme Written?

To record rhyme scheme, you’ll assign a letter of the alphabet to each rhyming sound. Words that have the same sound get the same letter.

For example:A tisket, a tasketA pretty yellow basket

“Tasket” is the first end word, so it becomes “a.” “Basket” rhymes with “tasket,” so it is also “a.” The rhyme scheme for this couplet is “aa.” Get it?

Example #1: abab

Let’s try another one:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

You should make your bed

Do you live in a zoo?

Which words rhyme?

Example #1: abab

“red” rhymes with “bed”

“blue” rhymes with “zoo”

What’s the rhyme scheme?

abab• Because “red” is the word at the end of the first

line, it becomes “a” and every word that rhymes with it is also “a.” The first time you come across a word that does NOT rhyme with “red,” that word becomes “b” and every word that rhymes with it becomes “b.” See?

Example #2: abcabc

So, if you understand where all the As and Bs come from, then we can throw in some Cs:

Once upon a timeIn a little tiny villageLived a funny little manWho grew a lot of limesAnd cleaned up lime juice spillageAnd placed it in a can

So, what’s the rhyme scheme??

Example #2: abcabc

Once upon a timeIn a little tiny village

Lived a funny little manWho grew a lot of limes

And cleaned up lime juice spillageAnd placed it in a can

Does that make sense?

a

b

c

a

b

c

Example #3: abcbdbeb

Now you know that each time a sound is repeated, it gets the same letter as every other word with the same sound, and each time a new sound appears, it gets a new letter. Try this one:

I went to school

Though I had the fluI slept through mathDidn’t know what to doFelt sick at lunchMissed the trip to the zooDon’t bother get out of bedIf you’re sick, too!

Example #3: abcbdbeb

I went to schoolThough I had the fluI slept through math

Didn’t know what to doFelt sick at lunch

Missed the trip to the zooDon’t bother get out of bed

If you’re sick, too!

a

b

c

b

d

b

e

b

Poetic Forms with Set Rhyme Scheme

There are even certain kinds of poems that are written with a specific rhyme scheme, like the• Shakespearean sonnet, which is

abab cdcd efef gg• And the Italian sonnet, which is

abba abba cde cde

(The breaks between groups of letters represent a new stanza, but the rhyme scheme does NOT start over at “a.”)

Try It Out Try one last example:

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,

Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year!

My hasting days fly on with full career,

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

Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,

That I to manhood am arrived so near,

And inward ripeness doth much less appear,

That some more timely-happy spirits indu'th.

Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,

It shall be still in strictest measure even

To that same lot, however mean or high,

Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven.

All is, if I have grace to use it so,

As ever in my great Task-master's eye.

Try It Out: Solution On His Being Arrived at the Age of Twenty-Three by John

MiltonHow 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

Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth, (a)

That I to manhood am arrived so near, (b)

And inward ripeness doth much less appear, (b)

That some more timely-happy spirits indu'th. (a)

Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow, (c)

It shall be still in strictest measure even (d)

To that same lot, however mean or high, (e)

Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven. (d)

All is, if I have grace to use it so, (c)

As ever in my great Task-master's eye. (e)

Got It?

Great! Now when a question comes up asking you to identify the rhyme scheme of a poem or the lyrics of a song, you’ll know just what to do!

Good luck!