Rhyme, rhythm and metre

Poems and songs are made to be heard. Rhyme repeats the same sounds at the ends of words, and rhythm is the pattern of strong and weak beats. Together they make a poem musical and easy to remember. All the verses here were written for Calcali.

Key facts

  • Words rhyme when they end with the same sound: ⟦cat⟧ and ⟦hat⟧. The spelling can be different (⟦snow⟧, ⟦go⟧), and words can look alike without rhyming (⟦love⟧, ⟦move⟧).
  • A rhyme scheme shows which lines rhyme, using letters: the first ending sound is A, the next new one B, and so on. Common schemes are AABB, ABAB, ABCB and ABBA.
  • A syllable is one beat of a word: ⟦but-ter-fly⟧ has 3 syllables. In every word, one syllable is stressed (stronger).
  • Rhythm is the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. Metre is a regular rhythm: iambic is ⟦da-DUM⟧, trochaic is ⟦DUM-da⟧.
  • Iambic pentameter has five ⟦da-DUM⟧ feet in a line: 10 syllables and 5 stressed beats. Shakespeare used it in his plays and sonnets.

Worked examples

Example 1

Which word rhymes with ⟦said⟧: ⟦paid⟧ or ⟦bed⟧?

  1. Say the words aloud: ⟦said⟧ sounds like ⟦sed⟧.
  2. ⟦bed⟧ ends with the same sound. ⟦paid⟧ only looks similar.

Answer: ⟦bed⟧

Example 2

What is the rhyme scheme? ⟦The river runs beneath the hill, / It sings a song of stones and rain; / And when the summer days are still, / It hums its way along the lane.⟧

  1. The endings are ⟦hill⟧, ⟦rain⟧, ⟦still⟧, ⟦lane⟧.
  2. ⟦hill⟧ and ⟦still⟧ rhyme (A); ⟦rain⟧ and ⟦lane⟧ rhyme (B): ABAB.

Answer: ABAB

Example 3

Which pattern of beats? ⟦The rain came softly down upon the town⟧

  1. ⟦the RAIN came SOFT-ly DOWN up-ON the TOWN⟧: weak, then strong, five times.
  2. 10 syllables, 5 stressed beats, ⟦da-DUM⟧: iambic pentameter.

Answer: iambic pentameter