Rhyme, rhythm and metre · Grade 8

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.

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