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Rhyme scheme

Structure
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

The systematic pattern of end-rhymes in a poem, denoted by letters (e.g., ABAB), which shapes its formal structure and sonic architecture.

Explore this topic in depth (2)

How to Compare Poems — Comparing poems is not a matter of making two separate lists. It is a way of seeing how poems ask related questions in distinct voices, shapes and sounds—and of discovering what each poem makes newly visible in the other.

Sonnet — The sonnet is one of poetry's most enduring forms: compact enough to concentrate thought, yet flexible enough for love, politics, faith, nature and grief. This guide explores its history, structures and variations, with particular attention to the volta—the turn that gives many sonnets their dramatic movement.

Detailed Definition
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line in a stanza or poem, denoted by letters (e.g., ABAB for alternating rhyme); it shapes poetic form, guides reader expectation, and contributes to thematic unity, as in the ABABCDCD scheme of many ballads.
Example
Example in poetry:
ABAB in Shakespeare’s sonnets (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”); AABB in nursery rhymes like “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”; ABCB in ballads such as Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”; ABBA in Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” for elegiac closure; Terza rima’s ABA BCB CDC scheme in Dante’s “Divine Comedy”; Free verse may use slant rhyme schemes like ABCD with internal echoes in Plath’s “Daddy”.
Additional Notes
Rhyme scheme: The pattern of rhymes in a stanza or poem, denoted by letters (e.g., ABAB); helps define poetic forms (e.g., Shakespearean sonnet = ABABCDCDEFEFGG).
Also Known As
Rhyme pattern Sound arrangement Echo structure Verse scheme structural rhyme Echoic structure
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