The Basics: Rhyming and Rhyme Schemes

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Drew Rush
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The Basics: Rhyming and Rhyme Schemes

Post by Drew Rush » Tue Mar 30, 2004 6:26 pm

A common problem among inexperienced poets is either a lack of or an inconsitant rhyme scheme. It goes a long way to NOT use the same word at the end of a line in order to rhyme - please, please, please never rhyme the word "me" with "me", its just painful to read.

Rhyme - ok so we all know what rhyme is, ending lines with words that have the same sound. But some dont know you can rhyme with words that dont sound exactly the same.

Example: you may rhyme "ground" with "down" and get away with it. It all depends on the dominate sound in the word. With "ground" and "down" the dominate sound is "ow-n" - grOUNd and dOWN.

Rhyme Scheme - If you are going to rhyme in a poem, its best to just use a rhyme scheme. This means rhyming the whole poem in the same fashion. You'll often see rhyme schemes demonstrated with letters like A, B, C and so on. "A" represents one set of rhyming words, "B" represents a different set of rhyming words, and so on.

Example:
This is my fox (a)
he is in a box (a)
This is my cat (b)
he is in a hat (b)

So the rhyme scheme for this is A,A,B,B. Each stanza should have this same format of A,A,B,B.

Hello my dear (a)
How are you today? (b)
Here's a beer (a)
to drown your problems away. (b)
Do not mind that mouse (c)
he's a resident of this house. (c)

So the rhyme scheme for this is A,B,A,B,C,C.


Different forms of poetry use different rhyme schemes. Please explore the rest of this forum to learn more about the way rhyme schemes are used.

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