Rhyme Scheme

Outline:

 In most poems, the lines are written according to patterns of rhythm. Poetic meter is the measure of rhythm in a line of poetry.  Rhythm is thus measured in poems.    The smallest of these metrical units is the 'syllable'.  English syllables are two kinds: accented or stressed, and unaccented or unstressed. An "accented syllable" requires more wind and push behind it than an unaccented; it also maybe pitched slightly higher or held for a slightly longer time. 

        After the syllable, the next largest metrical unit is the 'foot', which is group of two or more syllables.  The six common kinds of feet in English metrics have been names as derived from Greek: 

1. IAMBIC foot consists of unaccented syllable followed by an accented. It can be heard in such words as "because, hello, Elaine, afraid, begin, receive, because"

. The following, by Robert Frost, is an iambic line of verse:

  u     '       u    '    u   '    u   '

Whose woods / these are / I think /I know

 

2. TROCHAIC foot is the exact opposite of the iambic foot; consists of an accented syllable followed by an unaccented. These are trochaic words: answer, Tuesday, Albert, weary, flowing, silent.

The following, by Longfellow, is an example of trochaic verse:

  '   u     '  u    ' u    ' u

Then the / little / Hia / watha

. 

3. DACTYLIC foot consists of an accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables. You can hear the dactylic beat in these words: beautiful, silently, Saturday, daffodil, murmuring.

. The following, by Thomas Hood, illustrates a dactylic line:

  '   u   u    '  u u

Take her up / tenderly

 

4. ANAPESTIC foot consists of two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable. These words are anapestic: cavalier, tambourine, Marianne, interrupt, contradict, engineer.

The following, from Browning's "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix," is an example of an anapestic line:

  u   u    '      u u  '     u  u   '      u    u    '

Till at length / into Aix / Roland gal / loped and stood.

. 

5. SPONDAIC foot consists of two accented syllables.

The following from ‘Browning’s ‘The Bishop orders his tomb’

Good Strong thick stu  pe fy ing in cense smoke

6. PYRRHIC foot consists of two unaccented syllables. 

The following from Byron’s ‘Don Juan’

My way is to be gin with the be gin ning

The next largest metrical unit is the 'line'. A line is the regular succession of feet, and, though it is not necessarily a sentence, it customarily begins with a capital letter. Feet are combined to make a line of poetry. The number of feet in a line of verse determines the measure or meter The length, or measure, of a line is called the meter.. Most poems are not built on a fixed meter, but rather on a combination of meters and variety of them.

The shortest line of poetry contains only one foot (monometer).  A line containing only one foot is called a "monometer"; one with two feet, a "dimeter" line; and so on through "trimeter", "tetrameter", "pentameter", "hexameter", "heptameter", and "octameter".(eight feet) one of the longest (octameter) consists of eight feet.

Perhaps the best known is the five-foot line (pentameter), usually with an iambic beat and therefore called iambic pentameter. It is easily recognized in the plays of Shakespeare, the blank verse of John Milton, and the unrhymed narratives of Robert Frost. 

 A poem need not have a meter. The poems, written in rhythmical language but not in traditional meters, are called 'free verse'. Nonmetrical poetry is called free because the poet has freed himself from conforming himself to the set of metrical patterns. Free verse must not be confused with "blank verse', which is the customary label for iambic pentameter without rhyme. Blank verse is regular in meter but does not rhyme; free verse is irregular in meter and also does not rhyme       

Meter has two functions. First, it makes poem pleasurable because it is from within  and is delightful. In addition to making a poem enjoyable, meter makes it more meaningful. It is a part of the total meaning -- a part that cannot always be described in words, but can always be felt and is always lost when a poem is paraphrased or when it is translated from one language to another. 

  Rhyme, is a likeness of terminal sounds of words, frequently used in versification either at the end of a line of verse or within the line. Rhyme was not established as a technique in English poetry until the 14th century.  Rhyme appeared frequently in songs of the medieval Roman Catholic Church. Since then some kinds of poetry have employed rhyme, but it has never been discontinued in their usage. Rhyme functions as an element of rhythm, emphasizing poetic beat.

There are three types of true rhymes: masculine rhymes, in which the final syllable of the word or line is stressed ("spring," "bring"); feminine rhymes, in which two consecutive syllables, the first of which is accented, are alike in sound ("certain," "curtain"); and triple rhymes, in which all three syllables of a word are identical ("flowery," "showery").

Words in which the vowel and the following consonants in a stressed syllable are identical in sound, even if spelled differently, are called perfect rhymes ("two" and "too," or "spring" and "bring"). In eye, or sight, rhyme the words look as if they rhyme, but do not: "move," "love." Slant, or oblique, rhyme uses words with an imperfect match of sounds. Within this category, consonance relies on the similarity of consonant sounds: "shift," "shaft"; assonance relies on the similarity of vowel sounds: "grow," "home."

A pair of rhyming lines is called a couplet; three lines that rhyme are called a triplet. Traditional poetic forms have prescribed rhyming patterns; for example, sonnets usually follow the Italian rhyme scheme, abba abba cde cde, or the English rhyme scheme, abab cdcd efef gg..