» What is a rhyme scheme?
What is an internal rhyme scheme?
What is an external rhyme scheme?
The Rhyming Raven’s Challenge!
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What’s a rhyme scheme?
What makes “The Raven” so great to read and listen to? One reason is its unique rhyme schemes. A rhyme scheme is the pattern of sounds that stay the same throughout the entire poem.
Think of rhyme scheme like the positions on a baseball field. There are nine positions that almost always stay the same - the catcher is always behind home plate, the pitcher is always on the mound, and so on. But the person playing the position can change easily: Joe might pitch for a few innings, then move to right field; Kathy might come off the bench to play third base. In other words, the players change but the positions stay the same.
The same is true for rhyme scheme. Like the players, the words being rhymed can be (and usually are!) changed throughout the poem. But the positions stay the same: if the words are rhymed at the ends of lines 1 and 2 in the first stanza, they are going to be rhymed at that same position in the next stanza. So a rhyme scheme is where the rhymes occur in a stanza, not what words are rhymed.
“The Raven” uses two types of rhyme schemes - internal and external. Click here to look at how internal rhyme schemes use sounds to make one part of the poem gel together. If you want to know more about how external rhyme schemes help the whole poem sound cool and make meaning, click here.
What is an internal rhyme scheme?
What is an external rhyme scheme?
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