Rhyme

Rhyme and Rhyme Scheme

If I were to ask you to describe to me what a poem was, what would you say? If you don't have an answer to this question, don't worry. If you were to ask me the same question I would be hard-pressed to come up with an answer myself. The truth is that poetry can take take on many different shapes and forms, depending upon the era in which it is written. Back in Shakespeare's day people wrote poetry in a form know as the sonnet, today poets practice a wide assortment of poetic forms. Rather than concentrate on various poetic styles, this part of the poetry unit will instead be more concerned with the poetic devices thats poets rely.

Returning to the question I asked earlier, would many of you have said that a poem has to rhyme? While it is not necessary that a poem must rhyme, rhyme schemes were (and still are in some cases) a very important part of poetry. Some of my first experiences with poetry are heavily steeped in rhyme. Take for example this shinning poetic example from my childhood.

Roses are red
Violets are blue
You look like a monkey
And smell like one too

Lovely isn't it? Do you see the rhymes in this poem? The word 'red' and 'monkey ' rhyme with one another (at the the vowel E sound does) while 'blue' and 'too' do as well.

I am well aware that probably everyone of you has had some form of experience with rhymes. If you've ever turned on the radio, chances are that you have heard the singer of some song using rhymes. Rhymes are nothing new to you. The next term I intend on discussing with you, rhyme schemes, is probably something else you are familiar with. Returning to my rather juvenile poetic example, examine the rhyme scheme. See how every other line rhymes with one another? This particular poem has an a-b-a-b rhyme scheme.

Roses are red (a)
Violets are blue (b)
You look like a monkey (a)
And smell like one too (b)

There are quite a few rhyme schemes out there. Wikipedia lists several of them on their website (www.wikipedia.org). GO there and check out these various forms, many of them are quite elaborate.