1 Answer

Technical Tips for Reading Sonnets and Early Modern Poetry

A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming lines in a poem. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme. For example abab indicates a four-line stanza in which the first and third lines rhyme, as do the second and fourth. Here is an example of this rhyme scheme from To Anthea, Who May Command Him Any Thing by Robert Herrick:

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.

Sounds in orange are marked with the letter A

Sounds in purple are marked with the letter B

Sounds that almost rhyme are called "slant rhymes" or "near rhymes" (for instance, "fat" and "cant").

Rhyme is determined by sound, not spelling, so don’t get fooled. Which of these two pair of words rhyme?

puff / enough
through / though