Rhyme Scheme Evaluating Poetry What Is Rhyme Scheme

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 tasket A 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 time In a little tiny village Lived a funny little man Who grew a lot of limes And cleaned up lime juice spillage And placed it in a can So, what’s the rhyme scheme? ?

Example #2: abcabc Once upon a time In a little tiny village Lived a funny little man Who grew a lot of limes And cleaned up lime juice spillage And placed it in a can Does that make sense? 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 flu I slept through math Didn’t know what to do Felt sick at lunch Missed the trip to the zoo Don’t bother get out of bed If you’re sick, too!

Example #3: abcbdbeb I went to school Though I had the flu I slept through math Didn’t know what to do Felt sick at lunch Missed the trip to the zoo Don’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 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 Milton 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 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!