Rhyme scheme

A rhyme scheme is the pattern of end rhymes across lines of a poem, commonly represented by letters that mark recurring sounds.

Rhyme: Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds, especially at the ends of words. A rhyme scheme records where this sound relationship recurs across lines.
Rhyme letter notation: Rhyme letter notation assigns the same letter to line endings that rhyme and a new letter to each distinct sound. It is the standard method for writing a rhyme scheme.
Sonnet: A sonnet is a fourteen-line poem with a formal structure that often includes a patterned rhyme scheme. Its familiar forms make rhyme schemes easy to compare and recognize.
Blank verse: Blank verse is unrhymed poetry written in a regular meter, often iambic pentameter. It retains patterned rhythm while omitting the end rhymes a scheme would map.
Shakespeare's Sonnet 18: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” is a Shakespearean sonnet with three quatrains and a closing couplet. Its ABAB CDCD EFEF GG pattern supports a shift toward the final claim.
End rhyme: End rhyme occurs when words at the ends of lines share corresponding sounds. These line-ending sounds are the primary material mapped by a rhyme scheme.
Masculine rhyme: Masculine rhyme ends on a single stressed syllable, as in “bright” and “light.” Its clear end sounds commonly create straightforward letter matches.
Petrarchan sonnet: A Petrarchan sonnet has an eight-line octave followed by a six-line sestet, traditionally with distinct rhyme patterns. Its octave and sestet show how a scheme can mark a poem’s structural turn.
Free verse: Free verse is poetry that does not follow a fixed meter or regular rhyme scheme. It shows that poems can organize lines without a recurring end-rhyme pattern.
Shakespeare's Sonnet 130: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” is a Shakespearean sonnet that parodies idealized love poetry. Its regular sonnet scheme contrasts with the poem’s deliberately unidealized comparisons.

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