Rhyme Scheme
What is a rhyme?
A rhyme consists of two or more words whose beginnings sound different but whose endings sound the same. For example: sat and cat rhyme because they begin with different sounds yet the endings sound the same.
A rhyme consists of two or more words whose beginnings sound different but whose endings sound the same. For example: sat and cat rhyme because they begin with different sounds yet the endings sound the same.
However, the endings do not necessarily need to be spelled the same. For example: sight and kite rhyme because they end in the same sound, even though one ends in "-ight" and the other ends in "-ite."
What is Rhyme Scheme?
Rhyme Scheme is the organization or pattern of the rhymes at the end of the lines of a poem. These patterns are usually marked by letters, with the same letter matching up with words that rhyme.
Here are two examples, both with different rhyme schemes:
Rhyme Scheme is the organization or pattern of the rhymes at the end of the lines of a poem. These patterns are usually marked by letters, with the same letter matching up with words that rhyme.
Here are two examples, both with different rhyme schemes:
|
|
For another example, look at this poem by William Shakespeare. It's called Sonnet 18. Click on the picture of Shakespeare if you want to listen to the poem being read. Can you hear the rhyme scheme more easily when the poem is read aloud?
Sonnet 18:
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And Summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. |
|
For help with creating your own rhymes, check out the website Rhymezone.