What is rhyme?
Rhyme involves the use
of rhyming words. Rhyming words are words that end with the same/similar
sounds.
Examples of rhyming words
Sank – thank Tout – doubt Clamour – glamour Try – dry
Sump –
thump
Town – down Tomb – doom Train – drain Beer – veer
In poetry, end rhyme is formed
when lines end with rhyming words. For instance, the two lines below contain
end rhyme:
They kept her locked up tight
Doing things that felt not right
In the example above, the two words ‘tight’ and ‘right’ are rhyming as they are ending with a similar sound.
Internal rhyme, also referred to as middle rhyme occurs in the following circumstances:
- When two or more rhyming words occur within the same line.
For example, Down the town, he walked
- When two or more rhyming words appear in the middle of two or more separate lines.
For example, In the
midnight dreary, she pondered
Weak and weary, she wondered
- When a word at the end of a line rhymes
with one or more in the middle of the following line
For example, While
reading nearly napping,
Gentle rapping, knocking at his door
Read the poem below and then try to identify the instances of rhyme in it.
Mystic Travel
Mystic travel time
Too endless islands in your mind
Tiny lights majestic and free
Open the skies soar me
Travel your minds unseen road
To mysterious lands secrets untold
The mountains valley lay quiet
As a shower carries away
The warmth of an evening breeze
Built from within a day
Heat dances shadows on the lakes fiery bay
Constructing temples where gods could play
Today is the finest piece
For tranquil emptiness
Suggestions of fluent sensations
Congregated illusions of masturbations
Sympathize the richness of the truth
Energize the expected thoughts of youth
From the above poem, we can point out several rhyming couplets. They include among others:
- Free/me
- Away/day
- Sensations/masturbations
- Truth/youth
Internal Rhyme in Separate Lines
In some instances,
internal rhyme can exist in separate lines. For example
I see double toil
When caldron bubble and fire burn
The words ‘double’ and ‘bubble’ rhyme even though they are in separate lines.
She quickly drove to the lake
And dove right into the water
The rhyming
words are ‘drove’ and ‘dove’.
Rhyme Scheme
A rhyme scheme is a way of describing the pattern
of the end rhymes in a poem. The described pattern of
the end rhymes can either be a regular rhyme scheme or an irregular rhyme scheme.
How to describe a rhyme scheme
- Each new sound at the end of a line is assigned a letter
- The assigning of letters is based on the letters of the alphabet starting from ‘a’ then ‘b’ then ‘c’ and so on.
- Any sound that has been repeated is assigned the same letter as that of an earlier line
Example of rhyme scheme
Happy Baby
Her lips suckle the nipples (a)
Milk bubbles, foams and ripples (a)
Little hands up in the air (b)
Catch on the mother’s hair (b)
Sweet sensation rises in pressure (c)
Tiny legs kick pleasure (c)
Sleep comes gently and strong (d)
Sleep whispers softly and long (d)
The rhyme scheme of the poem above is regular aa bb cc dd
I’ll be missing you
Every step I take, (a)
Every move I make, (a)
Every single day, (b)
Every time I pray,(b)
I’ll be missing you. (c)
Thinking of that day (b)
When you went away (b)
What a life to live (d)
What a bond to break (a)
I’ll be missing you. (c)
The rhyme scheme of
the poem is irregular aa bb cb bd ac
The importance of rhyme in poetry
- Rhyme creates rhythm in the poem.
- Rhyme makes reading or reciting the poem
interesting.
- Rhyme makes a poem easy to remember/memorize.