Rhyme and Reason
- POSTED ON: 23 Mar, 2018
- TOTAL VIEWS: 1343 Views
- POSTED BY: Bhavya Venkatesh
- ARTICLE POINTS: 100 Points
March 21 is World Poetry Day. Don’t you agree that it’s lovely when poems rhyme? Let’s learn a little bit more about rhyming in poems.
When a poem has rhyming words at the end of its lines, they are called end rhymes. For example:
“Whose woods these are I think I know,
His house is in the village, though;”
What is a rhyme scheme?
A rhyme scheme is the way or pattern in which the lines in a poem rhyme with each other. You can find out what a poem’s rhyme scheme is by looking at the last word in each line. Take a look at this poem.
‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.”
The words ‘star’ and ‘are’ rhyme with each other. Assign the letter ‘A’ to them. ‘High’ and ‘sky’ rhyme with each other. Let’s call these words ‘B’. Now, the rhyme scheme of this stanza would be AABB.
Here’s another example:
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
‘Doing’ and ‘pursuing’ rhyme with each other. Assign ‘A’ to them. ‘Fate’ and ‘wait’ rhyme – call these words ‘B’. The rhyme scheme of this stanza ABAB.
Now, try guessing the rhyme scheme of these poems.