AP® English Literature and Composition · Poetry Craft: Rhyme and Sound
3.C Reading a Rhyme Scheme
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhyming line endings, labelled with letters like ABAB or ABBA, that shows a poem's structure and where it breaks that structure to make meaning.
To read a rhyme scheme, give the first line's ending sound the letter A. Move down the stanza, and any line that rhymes with it also gets A. The next new sound gets B, the next new one after that gets C, and so on. By the time you reach the stanza's last line, you have a short string of letters, like ABAB or ABBA, that is the poem's skeleton laid bare. You can see in one glance what took the poem four lines to say out loud.
The letters are not just labeling; they expose shape. ABAB alternates, so each new line answers the one two back, and the pattern keeps moving forward, line by line, like a weave. ABBA closes a loop: the first and fourth lines match, the second and third match inside them, so the middle gets wrapped and held rather than carried along. Day, night, way, light would mark as ABAB, since day and way share a sound and night and light share another, alternating straight down.
Once a pattern is visible, a reader can spot exactly where a poem breaks it, and that break is rarely an accident. If ten lines rhyme in a steady pattern and the eleventh suddenly doesn't, that unrhymed line is usually where the poem wants attention. This is where rhyme scheme connects to the sound textures nearby: alliteration, assonance, and meter all build mood the same way, by setting an expectation and then either satisfying or denying it. Rhyme scheme is the most visible of these patterns because it can be written down in letters, which makes it the easiest place to start noticing the others.
Key terms
- rhyme scheme
- The pattern of rhyming line endings in a stanza or poem, written as a sequence of letters like ABAB.
- end rhyme
- Rhyme that occurs between the final words of two or more lines.
- alternating rhyme
- A scheme such as ABAB where rhymes interlock every other line, carrying the pattern forward.
- enclosed rhyme
- A scheme such as ABBA where the outer lines rhyme and the inner lines rhyme separately, framing the middle.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow do you assign letters to line endings to write out a rhyme scheme?
- Worked exampleWalk me through writing the scheme of a stanza rhyming day, night, way, light.
- Worked exampleShow me why ABAB feels woven while ABBA feels wrapped around a centre.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't a rhyme scheme just decoration a reader can skip past?
Check yourself
End of topic.