The Use of Rhyme and Rhyme Scheme in Poetry

How to use rhyme in poetry, rhyme scheme and examples
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rhyme-and-rhyme-scheme
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                Tick – dick                  Creed – greed                             Sigh – thigh 

Town – down                  Tomb – doom               Train – drain                              Beer – veer

Bow – vow

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.

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