Rhyme scheme

A **rhyme scheme** is the pattern of rhyme between lines of a poem or song. People usually use letters to show which lines rhyme with which other lines. 

For example, in a poem that is \mathrm{ABAB}, the first and third lines rhyme with each other and the second and fourth lines rhyme with each other. The most basic rhyme schemes are \mathrm{AA}, \mathrm{AAA}, \mathrm{AABB}, \mathrm{ABAB} and \mathrm{ABBA}. There are also more complicated schemes, such as \mathrm{ABABBCC} (rhyme royal), \mathrm{ABABABCC} (ottava rima) or \mathrm{ABABBBCBCC} (Spenserian stanza). Sonnets may have very different rhyme schemes, Italian (\mathrm{ABBA \,\, ABBA \,\, CDC \,\, DCD}, \mathrm{ABBA \,\, ABBA \,\, CDE \,\, CDE}, \mathrm{ABBA \,\, ABBA \,\, CDE \,\, EDC}), French (\mathrm{ABBA \,\, ABBA \,\, CDCD \,\, EE}), Spenserian (\mathrm{ABAB \,\, BCBC \,\, CDCD \,\, EE}) or Shakesperian (\mathrm{ABAB \,\, CDCD \,\, EFEF \,\, GG}).

: *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.*
:: *(Robert Herrick, To Anthea, who may Command him Anything)*, an ABAB rhyme scheme

Sometimes there are also internal rhymes. In the following strophe from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's *The Rime of the Ancient Mariner* there are rhymes and alliteration:

: *The fat breeze blew, the white foam flew,*
: *The furrow followed free;*
: *We were the first that ever burst*
: *Into that silent sea.*

Some schemes are common, the other are used very rarely. The scheme \mathrm{AABBCC} is simple and can be found everywhere, but the scheme \mathrm{ABCCBA}, used by Robert Browning in the *Meeting at Night*, was never popular:

: *The grey sea and the long black land;*
: *And the yellow half-moon large and low;*
: *And the startled little waves that leap*
: *In fiery ringlets from their sleep,*
: *As I gain the cove with pushing prow,*
: ''And quench its speed i' the slushy sand.''

There are many possibilities for rhyme scheme. Five-line stanzas can have any of ten schemes with two different rhymes: \mathrm{AAABB}, \mathrm{AABAB}, \mathrm{AABBA}, \mathrm{ABBAA}, \mathrm{ABABA}, \mathrm{ABAAB}, \mathrm{AABBB}, \mathrm{ABABB}, \mathrm{ABBAB}, \mathrm{ABBBA}. Another possibility is of course \mathrm{AAAAA}.

Notice that two or three rhymes can be linked to each other by repeating the same vowel. The rhyme scheme of Giambattista Marino's poem *Adone* is \mathrm{ABABABCC} (ottava rima), but in this strophe all rhymes are based on the vowel [i]. This feature shows up in Italian text but not in other languages:

: *Giunto a quel passo il giovinetto Alc**i**de,*
: *che fa capo al camin di nostra v**i**ta,*
: *trovò dubbio e sospeso infra due gu**i**de*
: *una via, che’ due strade era part**i**ta.*
: *Facile e piana la sinistra ei v**i**de,*
: *di delizie e piacer tutta fior**i**ta;*
: *l’altra vestìa l’ispide balze alp**i**ne*
: *di duri sassi e di pungenti spine.*

A a poet, period of time, or type of poetry can have a preferred rhyme scheme. For example, the Scottish poet Robert Burns preferred the scheme \mathrm{AAABAB}. Rhyme royal, \mathrm{ABABBCC}, was common in medieval English poetry. Ottava rima was typical of epic poems. Many great epic poems were written in Italian, Spanish or Portuguese with \mathrm{ABABABCC} scheme.

## References 
## Bibliography 
* Josef Berg Esenwein, Mary Eleanor Roberts, *The Art of Versification*. Revised Edition, Home Correspondence School, Springfield 1921.