RHYME
Rhyme occurs when words end in the same sound, for example, flower and power.
 There are two common types of rhyme in poetry: internal rhyme and end rhyme.
o Internal Rhyme: When two or more words rhyme WITHIN a line of poetry
Example: “Jack and Jill went up the hill.”
Explanation: The name "Jill" rhymes with the word "hill."
o End Rhyme: When TWO or more LINES of poetry END with the same sound.
Example: “Jill ran up the hill / And down the hill went Dill.”
Explanation: In the two lines of poetry hill and Dill rhyme, and they both occur at the end of
the lines, so this is an example of end rhyme.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------STANZA
Stanza: A certain number of lines that form a unit (piece) of a poem.
 Couplet: a pair of lines in poetry that share the same ending sound (end rhyme). Lines in a couplet also
usually have the same METER (pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables).
Example 1: “Twinkle twinkle little star/ How I wonder what you are.”
Example 2: “Up above the world so high / Like a diamond in the sky.”
 Quatrain: A stanza of four lines in a poem – does not have to rhyme.
Example 1:
Behold the hippopotamus!
We laugh at how he looks to us,
And yet in moments dank and grim,
I wonder how we look to him.
(From Ogden Nash’s “The Hippopotomus”)
Example 2:
Look back on time with kindly eyes,
He doubtless did his best;
How softly sinks his trembling sun
In human nature's west!
(From Emily Dickinson’s “Look Back on Time with
Kindly Eyes”)
RHYME SCHEME: A pattern of rhyming lines in a poem. Usually letters are used to indicate which lines rhyme.
Although quatrains do not have to rhyme, many often do. A rhyming quatrain is a set of four lines that follow
a rhyme scheme.
The rhyme schemes in a quatrain could be:
 AABB--(the first and second lines rhyme with each other and the third and fourth lines rhyme with
each other. In other words, a pair of rhyming couplets together)
 ABAB--(the first and third lines rhyme with each other and the second and fourth lines rhyme with
each other)
 ABBA--(the first and fourth lines rhyme with each other and the second and third rhyme with each
other)
 ABCB--(only the second and fourth rhyme with each other).
Example 1:
A-A-B-B
Behold the hippopotamus!
(A)
We laugh at how he looks to us,
(A)
And yet in moments dank and grim, (B)
I wonder how we look to him.
(B)
(From Ogden Nash’s “The Hippopotomus”)
Example 2:
A-B-A-B
Bid me to weep, and I will weep,
While I have eyes to see;
And having none, yet I will keep
A heart to weep for thee.
(A)
(B)
(A)
(B)
(From To Anthea, Who May Command
Him Any Thing by Robert Herrick)
Example 3:
A-B-B-A
Others abide our question. Thou art free.
(A)
We ask and ask—thou smilest and art still, (B)
Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill, (B)
Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty,
(A)
(The first verse of Matthew Arnold’s “Shakespeare”)
Example 4:
A-B-C-B
Look back on time with kindly eyes,
He doubtless did his best;
How softly sinks his trembling sun
In human nature's west!
(A)
(B)
(C)
(B)
(From Emily Dickinson’s “Look Back on Time with Kindly Eyes”)
AND
Mary had a little lamb,
Its fleece was white as snow,
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go.
(A)
(B)
(C)
(B)