Rhyme Definition | What is Rhyme? - PoetrySoup

The rhyme scheme "abba" (that is, where the first and fourth lines, and the second and third lines rhyme).

Example

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,
Stolen on his wing my three and twentieth year!
My hasting days fly on with full career,
But my late spring no bud or blossom shew'th.

(From John Milton's "On His Being Arrived to the Age of Twenty-Three")

An identical rhyme on every line, common in Latin and Arabic. "aaaaa..."

Example

A break from my career,
to visit a new frontier.
Where life is not severe,
and stress will disappear.
I'll become a pioneer,
a new found volunteer.
To help this old sphere,
make it's air all clear.
We will persevere,
for I'm the brigadier.
So as I tip my beer,
lets offer up a cheer.
Lets make this our year
where everyone will be sincere.

I do not know if there is a name for this style of poetry, but I have written it with every fourth line rhyming, so that the two stanzas are dependent upon each other for their verse.

Example

The actor lives upon the stage With his voice, his tale conveys Reciting lines in mellow tones Captures all that hear The writer lives upon the page With his hand, his tale portrays Penning lines, each word he hones Seduce the eye instead of ear

[n] a piece of poetry
[n] correspondence in the sounds of two or more lines (especially final sounds)
[v] compose rhymes
[v] be similar in sound, esp. with respect to the last syllable; "hat and cat rhyme"

A rhyming poem has the repetition of the same or similar sounds of two or more words, often at the end of the line.

Example

Jabberwocky (First Two Stanzas)
Lewis Carroll

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

Synonyms

rime, rime, rime, verse

See Also...

agree, alliterate, alliteration, assonance, assonate, beginning rhyme, check, clerihew, consonance, consonant rhyme, correspond, create verbally, doggerel, doggerel verse, eye rhyme, fit, gibe, head rhyme, initial rhyme, internal rhyme, jibe, jingle, limerick, match, poem, tag, tally, verse form, versification, vowel rhyme

[n] a stanza form having seven lines of iambic pentameter; introduced by Chaucer

A type of poetry consisting of seven lines, usually in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b-b-c-c. In practice, the stanza can be constructed either as a tercet and two couplets (a-b-a, b-b, c-c) or a quatrain and a tercet (a-b-a-b, b-c-c). This allows for a good deal of variety, especially when the form is used for longer narrative poems and along with the couplet, it was the standard narrative metre in the late Middle Ages.

Example

Here is the opening stanza of Troilus and Criseyde:

The double sorwe of Troilus to tellen,

That was the king Priamus sone of Troye,

In lovinge, how his aventures fellen

Fro wo to wele, and after out of Ioye,

My purpos is, er that I parte fro ye,

Thesiphone, thou help me for tendyte

Thise woful vers, that wepen as I wryt

and this is the first stanza of the Wyatt poem:

They flee from me that sometime did me seek

With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.

I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,

That now are wild and do not remember

That sometime they put themself in danger

To take bread at my hand; and now they range,

Busily seeking with a continual change.

See Also...

stanza

( rime couée ) This is a French form consisting of two rhymes. First there is a rhyming couplet of normally of eight syllables then a third and shorter line. There is another couplet that rhymes with the first one and the sixth, shorter line that rhymes with the third line. This gives us a suggested pattern : aabccb

Example

NA