Rhyme Scheme
The pattern of end rhymes in a poem, typically notated with letters where matching letters indicate rhyming lines.
Last updatedA rhyme scheme is the organized pattern of rhymes at the ends of lines in a poem, conventionally represented by assigning a letter to each new sound and repeating the letter when that sound recurs. The first line's end sound is designated "A," the next new sound "B," and so on. For example, a quatrain rhyming ABAB has its first line rhyming with the third and its second with the fourth, while AABB indicates two consecutive couplets. Rhyme scheme is one of the primary structural elements of formal poetry, providing cohesion, musicality, and a sense of pattern that the reader's ear anticipates and finds satisfying when fulfilled.
Different rhyme schemes create fundamentally different effects. The Shakespearean sonnet's ABABCDCDEFEFGG drives the poem forward through three distinct quatrains before resolving in a closing couplet that often delivers an epigrammatic twist. The Petrarchan sonnet's ABBAABBA octave creates a more enclosed, meditative quality, with its embracing rhymes folding the sound back on itself. In The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge uses an ABCB ballad stanza rhyme scheme that gives the poem its narrative momentum and folk-tale quality. Dante's Divine Comedy employs terza rima (ABA BCB CDC), an interlocking scheme where each stanza's middle line rhymes with the outer lines of the next, creating a chain that pulls the reader ceaselessly forward.
When working with rhyme schemes, be alert to the dangers of forced rhyme, where the need to find a rhyming word distorts the natural phrasing or introduces a word that serves the sound but not the sense. The best rhymed poetry makes its rhymes feel inevitable rather than contrived. Expand your rhyming options by considering slant rhyme (words that nearly but do not perfectly rhyme, such as "room" and "storm"), which gives you more flexibility while maintaining sonic cohesion. Practice by writing in established schemes before inventing your own. Pay attention to how the rhyme scheme interacts with syntax: when a sentence's grammatical structure aligns with the rhyme scheme, the effect is one of resolution; when they work against each other, the effect is tension and enjambment.