Rhyme scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyme between lines of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme. In other words, it is the pattern of end rhymes or lines. A rhyme scheme gives the scheme of the rhyme; a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem (the end words).
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Thus its own associations and resonances to cause a particular effect on the reader. A basic distinction is between rhyme schemes that apply to a single stanza, and those that continue their pattern throughout an entire poem (see chain rhyme). There are also more elaborate related forms, like the sestina - which requires repetition of exact words in a complex pattern.
In English, highly repetitive rhyme schemes are unusual.[citation needed] English has more vowel sounds than Italian, for example, meaning that such a scheme would be far more restrictive for an English writer than an Italian one - there are fewer suitable words to match a given pattern. Even such schemes as the terza rima ("aba bcb cdc ded..."), used by Dante Alighieri in The Divine Comedy, have been considered too difficult for English.
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[edit] Example rhyme schemes
- Alternating rhyme: abab cdcd efef ghgh ijij...
- Chant royal: Five stanzas of "ababccddedE" followed by either "ddedE" or "ccddedE". (The capital letters indicate a line repeated verbatim.)
- Cinquain: "A,B,A,B,B"
- Clerihew: "A,A,B,B"
- Couplet: "A,A", but usually occurs as "A,A, B,B C,C D,D ..."
- Enclosed rhyme (or enclosing rhyme): "ABBA"
- "Fire and Ice" stanza: "ABAABCBCB" as used in Robert Frost's poem "Fire and Ice"
- Keatsian Ode: "ABABCDECDE" used in Keat's Ode on Indolence, Ode on a Grecian Urn, and Ode to a Nightingale.
- Limerick: "AABBA"
- Monorhyme: "A,A,A,A,A...", an identical rhyme on every line, common in Latin and Arabic
- Ottava rima: "A,B,A,B,A,B,C,C"
- The Raven stanza: "ABCBBB", or "AA,B,CC,CB,B,B" when accounting for internal rhyme, as used by Edgar Allan Poe in "The Raven"
- Rhyme royal: "ABABBCC"
- Rondelet: "AbAabbA"
- Rubaiyat: "AABA"
- Scottish stanza: "AAABAB", as used by Robert Burns in works such as "To a Mouse"
- Simple 4-line: "ABCB"
- Sonnet
- Petrarchan sonnet: "ABBA ABBA CDE CDE" or "ABBA ABBA CDC DCD"
- Shakespearean sonnet: "ABAB CDCD EFEF GG"
- Spenserian sonnet: "ABAB BCBC CDCD EE"
- Onegin stanzas: "aBaBccDDeFFeGG" with the lowercase letters representing feminine rhymes and the uppercase representing masculine rhymes, written in iambic tetrameter
- Sestina: ABCDEF FAEBDC CFDABE ECBFAD DEACFB BDFECA , the seventh stanza is a tercet where line 1 has A in it but ends with D, line 2 has B in it but ends with E, line 3 has C in it but ends with F
- Spenserian stanza: "ABABBCBCC"
- Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening form: "AABA BBCB CCDC DDDD" a modified Ruba'i stanza used by Robert Frost for the eponymous poem.
- Tanaga: traditional Tagalog tanaga is "AAAA"
- Terza rima: "ABA BCB CDC ...", ending on "YZY Z", "YZY ZZ", or "YZY ZYZ".
- Triplet: "AAA", often repeating like the couplet.
- The Road Not Taken stanza: "ABAAB" as used in Robert Frost's The Road Not Taken.
- Tolkien's One Ring-Inscription: "ABABACCA"; as used by J. R. R. Tolkien's poem on the One Ring.
- Villanelle: A1bA2 abA1 abA2 abA1 abA2 abA1A2, where A1 and A2 are lines repeated exactly which rhyme with the a lines.
[edit] Rhyme schemes in hip-hop music
Hip-hop music and rapping’s rhyme schemes include traditional schemes such as couplets, as well as forms specific to the genre,[1] which are broken down extensively in the books How to Rap and Book of Rhymes. Rhyme schemes used in hip-hop music include –
Couplets are the most common type of rhyme scheme in old school rap[7] and are still regularly used,[8] though complex rhyme schemes have progressively become more frequent.[9][10] Rather than relying on end rhymes, rap’s rhyme schemes can have rhymes placed anywhere in the bars of music to create a structure.[11] There can also be numerous rhyming elements which all work together in the same scheme[12] - this is called internal rhyme in traditional poetry,[13] though as rap's rhymes schemes can be anywhere in the bar, they could all be internal, so the term is not always used.[14] Rap verses can also employ 'extra rhymes', which do not structure the verse like the main rhyme schemes, but which add to the overall sound of the verse.[15]
[edit] References
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 95-110.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 99.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 100.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 101.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 101-102.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 102-103.
- ^ Bradley, Adam, 2009, Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip-Hop, Basic Civitas Books, p. 50.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 99.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 97.
- ^ Bradley, Adam, 2009, Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip-Hop, Basic Civitas Books, p. 73.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 107.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 104.
- ^ Bradley, Adam, 2009, Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip-Hop, Basic Civitas Books, p. 74.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 104.
- ^ Edwards, Paul, 2009, How to Rap: The Art & Science of the Hip-Hop MC, Chicago Review Press, p. 103.
[edit] External links
- Lingua::Rhyme::FindScheme — Perl module to find the rhyme scheme of a given text.
