Rhyme Scheme
Evaluating Poetry
What Is Rhyme Scheme?
 Rhyme Scheme is the term we use to
refer to the pattern of rhyming words in
a poem or a song.
 When you are asked to identify the
rhyme scheme for a poem, you’ll need
to look at the last word in each line of
poetry and determine which words
rhyme with one another.
How is Rhyme Scheme Written?
 To record rhyme scheme, you’ll assign a
letter of the alphabet to each rhyming sound.
Words that have the same sound get the
same letter.
 For example:
A tisket, a tasket
A pretty yellow basket
“Tasket” is the first end word, so it becomes
“a.” “Basket” rhymes with “tasket,” so it is
also “a.” The rhyme scheme for this couplet
is “aa.” Get it?
Example #1: abab
 Let’s try another one:
Roses are red
Violets are blue
You should make your bed
Do you live in a zoo?
Which words rhyme?
Example #1: abab
“red” rhymes with “bed”
“blue” rhymes with “zoo”
 What’s the rhyme scheme?
abab
• Because “red” is the word at the end of the first
line, it becomes “a” and every word that rhymes
with it is also “a.” The first time you come across
a word that does NOT rhyme with “red,” that word
becomes “b” and every word that rhymes with it
becomes “b.” See?
Example #2: abcabc
 So, if you understand where all the As and
Bs come from, then we can throw in some
Cs:
Once upon a time
In a little tiny village
Lived a funny little man
Who grew a lot of limes
And cleaned up lime juice spillage
And placed it in a can
So, what’s the rhyme scheme??
Example #2: abcabc
Once upon a time
In a little tiny village
Lived a funny little man
Who grew a lot of limes
And cleaned up lime juice spillage
And placed it in a can
Does that make sense?
a
b
c
a
b
c
Example #3: abcbdbeb
 Now you know that each time a sound is
repeated, it gets the same letter as every
other word with the same sound, and each
time a new sound appears, it gets a new
letter. Try this one:
I went to school
Though I had the flu
I slept through math
Didn’t know what to do
Felt sick at lunch
Missed the trip to the zoo
Don’t bother get out of bed
If you’re sick, too!
Example #3: abcbdbeb
I went to school
Though I had the flu
I slept through math
Didn’t know what to do
Felt sick at lunch
Missed the trip to the zoo
Don’t bother get out of bed
If you’re sick, too!
a
b
c
b
d
b
e
b
Poetic Forms with Set Rhyme
Scheme
 There are even certain kinds of poems that
are written with a specific rhyme scheme,
like the
• Shakespearean sonnet, which is
abab cdcd efef gg
• And the Italian sonnet, which is
abba abba cde cde
(The breaks between groups of letters represent a
new stanza, but the rhyme scheme does NOT
start over at “a.”)
Try It Out
 Try one last example:
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on with full career,
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th.
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,
That I to manhood am arrived so near,
And inward ripeness doth much less appear,
That some more timely-happy spirits indu'th.
Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,
It shall be still in strictest measure even
To that same lot, however mean or high,
Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven.
All is, if I have grace to use it so,
As ever in my great Task-master's eye.
Try It Out: Solution
 On His Being Arrived at the Age of Twenty-Three by John
Milton
How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth, (a)
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year! (b)
My hasting days fly on with full career, (b)
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th. (a
Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth, (a)
That I to manhood am arrived so near, (b)
And inward ripeness doth much less appear, (b)
That some more timely-happy spirits indu'th. (a)
Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow, (c)
It shall be still in strictest measure even (d)
To that same lot, however mean or high, (e)
Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven. (d)
All is, if I have grace to use it so, (c)
As ever in my great Task-master's eye. (e)
Got It?
 Great! Now when a question comes
up asking you to identify the rhyme
scheme of a poem or the lyrics of a
song, you’ll know just what to do!
 Good luck!