Writing Help 129 | - ☆ Freelance Writer
Apr 06, 2013 | #1
Poetic Terms You Have to Learn
One of the most basic features people use to identify poetry is rhyme, and although poetry does not need to rhyme to be poetry, if you see a series of ordered lines with a regular rhyme in your class text or on an exam, you can rest assured that it is a poem. There are dozens, perhaps even hundreds of ways that poets can employ rhyme in order to create various effects, and all of them are worthy of looking at; whenever you see rhyme in a poem, no matter where it occurs, examine it closely, because it has some significance to the overall meaning of the poem.
Of course, as most of you will already be aware, the most common use of rhyme in poetry, and certainly the most recognizable, is the use of end-rhymes, arranged in a regular pattern. End-rhymes are rhyming words that occur at the ends of a number of (at least two) poetic lines. In the following example, we see end-rhymes at work in a short space:
The louse destroyed the tree, 1
The frog destroyed the bee. 2
The word tree, ending the first line, rhymes with bee, ending the second line, creating an example of end-rhyme which is difficult to miss. These end-rhymes, found in such close proximity, are very common, but end rhymes can occur over a much greater number of lines. It is possible, for instance, for a word ending line 1 of a stanza to rhyme with line 5, or even lines 6, 8, or 10, although such a long space between rhymes is rare, because the original word is no longer fresh in memory, and its aural effect would be largely lost.
In order to keep track of, and to write about, the pattern which emerges when a series of end-rhymed lines occurs in a predictable pattern throughout a given stanza, the most effective tool to use is known as a rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme uses a simple kind of algebra to denote rhyming words, and is highly effective in determining whether a given poem uses a regular rhyming pattern or not. Read the following example, and see if you can spot the pattern of rhyme (also known as the rhyme scheme):
Alas, the space between us grows 1
Again, the distance multiplies 2
So quickly, no connection slows 3
The way such parting stultifies. 4
Ignoring what any of this might mean for the time being (as it has no bearing on the rhyme scheme, though we may find later that the rhyme scheme does have some bearing on the meaning), we can begin to discover the rhyme scheme of the poem by marking an A beside the word that ends the first line, grows. Looking now to the word that ends the second line, multiplies, we can see that is does not rhyme with grows, and so we can mark it with a B. The third line ends in slows, and comparing this to the other end words we have already seen, we can see that it rhymes with one of them, grows from line one. So, we mark an A beside the third line as well. Finally, the fourth-line end-word, stultifies, rhymes with multiplies from line two, and so we can label it B as well. So, since this is a complete stanza, we have our rhyme scheme: ABAB. This is a very common arrangement, and is perhaps only less common than AABB.
If you follow this procedure through an entire stanza, putting an A by the first end-word, and a new letter (proceeding in alphabetical order, of course) beside each end-word that does not rhyme with it, making sure to use the same letter for all words that rhyme with one other, you will have no problem finding the rhyme scheme for any poem you encounter.
Rhyme Scheme
One of the most basic features people use to identify poetry is rhyme, and although poetry does not need to rhyme to be poetry, if you see a series of ordered lines with a regular rhyme in your class text or on an exam, you can rest assured that it is a poem. There are dozens, perhaps even hundreds of ways that poets can employ rhyme in order to create various effects, and all of them are worthy of looking at; whenever you see rhyme in a poem, no matter where it occurs, examine it closely, because it has some significance to the overall meaning of the poem.
Of course, as most of you will already be aware, the most common use of rhyme in poetry, and certainly the most recognizable, is the use of end-rhymes, arranged in a regular pattern. End-rhymes are rhyming words that occur at the ends of a number of (at least two) poetic lines. In the following example, we see end-rhymes at work in a short space:The louse destroyed the tree, 1
The frog destroyed the bee. 2
The word tree, ending the first line, rhymes with bee, ending the second line, creating an example of end-rhyme which is difficult to miss. These end-rhymes, found in such close proximity, are very common, but end rhymes can occur over a much greater number of lines. It is possible, for instance, for a word ending line 1 of a stanza to rhyme with line 5, or even lines 6, 8, or 10, although such a long space between rhymes is rare, because the original word is no longer fresh in memory, and its aural effect would be largely lost.
In order to keep track of, and to write about, the pattern which emerges when a series of end-rhymed lines occurs in a predictable pattern throughout a given stanza, the most effective tool to use is known as a rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme uses a simple kind of algebra to denote rhyming words, and is highly effective in determining whether a given poem uses a regular rhyming pattern or not. Read the following example, and see if you can spot the pattern of rhyme (also known as the rhyme scheme):
Alas, the space between us grows 1
Again, the distance multiplies 2
So quickly, no connection slows 3
The way such parting stultifies. 4
Ignoring what any of this might mean for the time being (as it has no bearing on the rhyme scheme, though we may find later that the rhyme scheme does have some bearing on the meaning), we can begin to discover the rhyme scheme of the poem by marking an A beside the word that ends the first line, grows. Looking now to the word that ends the second line, multiplies, we can see that is does not rhyme with grows, and so we can mark it with a B. The third line ends in slows, and comparing this to the other end words we have already seen, we can see that it rhymes with one of them, grows from line one. So, we mark an A beside the third line as well. Finally, the fourth-line end-word, stultifies, rhymes with multiplies from line two, and so we can label it B as well. So, since this is a complete stanza, we have our rhyme scheme: ABAB. This is a very common arrangement, and is perhaps only less common than AABB.
If you follow this procedure through an entire stanza, putting an A by the first end-word, and a new letter (proceeding in alphabetical order, of course) beside each end-word that does not rhyme with it, making sure to use the same letter for all words that rhyme with one other, you will have no problem finding the rhyme scheme for any poem you encounter.