Rhyme:  the arrangement of work endings, which agree in their sound.

Example 1 from everyday language:

Most poems and songs have a regular rhyme scheme - think of the words of your favourite song - the ends of the lines probably rhyme.  Usually the rhyme comes at the end of a line, but sometimes it is in the middle of the line - and that is called an internal rhyme.

We find that there is a definite rhyme in nursery rhymes: 

NOTE: the internal rhymes - I have highlighted them in blue for you.

 

Mary, Mary, quite contrary,                (a)

 

How does your garden grow ?             (b) 

 

With silver bells and cockle shells,     (c)

 

And pretty maids all in a row              (b)

For this nursery rhyme, I have marked the rhyme scheme for you. 

Each line ending is marked with a letter. 

The first line is (a).  Any line which rhymes with that line is also marked (a).  

The second line ( if it doesn't rhyme with the first) is marked (b) and any line that rhymes with that is also called (b).  

As you work through the poem, you continue through the alphabet until each line is lettered - the pattern made by the letters is called the rhyme scheme. 

The rhyme scheme for this nursery rhyme is a b c b

Example 2 from literature:

Now look at this sonnet by William Shakespeare

A Sonnet has very definite rules about rhyme.  The rules of a Shakespearean sonnet say that it must have the following rhyme scheme: a b a b   c d c d   e f e f   g g

Look at this sonnet and check that the rhyme scheme is right.  I've done the first few lines for you.  

 

My mistress's eyes are nothing like the sun,           (a)

Currall is far more red, than her lips red,                (b)

If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun:

If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head:

I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,

But no such roses see I in her cheeks,

And in some perfumes is here more delight,

Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.

I love to hear her speak, yet well I know,

That music hath a far more pleasing sound:

I grant  I never saw a goddess go,

My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.

    And yet by heaven I think my love as rare,

    As any she belied with false compare.

 

            Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare

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