Sunday, April 13, 2014

DAY THIRTEEN ~ “Rhyming Poems” with an ‘A-B-A-B rhyme scheme’ for “30 Poems in 30 Days” #NationalPoetryMonth




Rhyming schemes: the use of end rhymes – last sound of the end word in one line of poetry rhyming with the last sound of the end word in another line of poetry.

There are several rhyming schemes in poetry but we are going to start with the most common:

a – b – a – b

This is where the words at the end of the first and third lines rhyme and the words at the end of the second and fourth line rhyme.

Your poem can be as many lines as you wish as long as you continue with the rhyming pattern throughout.

Here’s a couple of resources you can use to find rhyming words – just type in the word in the box, click and poof ~ a rhyming word appears:

You should also try to keep the meters of lines ‘a’ the same as each other and the meters of line ‘b’ the same as each other. This can be done by counting syllables. In the little 4 line example I made up, you can see the end words in the first and third lines rhyme and they both have 5 beats (5 syllables). The end words in the second and fourth lines rhyme and they both have 6 beats (6 syllables).

Here’s an example of a rhyming poem with an A-B-A-B scheme written by Lousia May Alcott (it is in the Public Domain – so I can use it here)

To One Who Teaches Me
    by Louisa May Alcott 

"To one who teaches me               (A)
 The sweetness and the beauty      (B)
 Of doing faithfully                        (A)
 And cheerfully my duty."               (B)    


And here’s one that I wrote ~ just for fun:
I went to the store                       (A)
To buy a loaf of bread.                  (B)
I found something more                 (A)
“So typical,” I said.                       (B)

                      © Stephanie Abney 2011 
          (Seems silly to copyright such a simple little sample verse but there 
            you have it)


You can just do four lines or you can create a longer poem by making several stanzas of four lines each. Also, note that often times the very last stanza can vary, or not, but all previous stanzas should follow the pattern.

Your turn! Have fun!

2 comments:

Vicki said...

Sunday is such a special day
I love the day so much
It is my eternal life's doorway
That provides me with Heaven's touch.

Tanya Parker Mills said...

I wrote this after visiting the site of the Mountain Meadows Massacre this afternoon (only half an hour from our house):

This pretty meadow scene
Belies the awful truth
Of murder cold and mean
Of women, men, and youth.

They trusted and walked out,
Defenseless and unarmed,
And at the given shout,
No one was left unharmed.

Some children did survive,
The ones too young to talk,
But while they left alive,
Their lives were like scarred rock.

What can we learn from such
Sweet peaceful meadow sight?
That man can err as much
As he can e'er do right.