Writing Rhyme Scheme 

Rhyme scheme is the term we use to refer to the pattern of rhyming words in a poem or a song.  

When you are asked to identify the rhyme scheme for a poem, you will need to look at the last word in each line of poetry and determine which words rhyme with one another. 

To draft a rhyme scheme, you will allot a letter of the alphabet to each rhyming sound.  

Words that have the same sound get the same letter. 

For example:  

A tisket, a tasket (a)   

A pretty yellow basket (a) 

“Tasket” is the first end word, so it becomes ‘a.’ “Basket” rhymes with “tasket,” so it is also ‘a.’ The rhyme scheme for this couplet is ‘aa.’ 

RHYME SCHEME – abab 

Apple is red 

Sky is blue 

I am going to bed 

Keeping the tiredness in the queue. 

Which words rhyme in the above poem?  

What is the rhyme scheme?  

Apple is red (a) 

Sky is blue(b) 

I am going to bed(a) 

Keeping the tiredness in the queue. (b) 

To the word ‘red’ we have identified a rhyming word ‘bed.’  

The same way for the word ‘blue’ we identified a word ‘queue’ to make the rhyme scheme abab. 

Poetic forms with set-rhyme scheme: 

There are even certain kinds of poems that are written with a specific rhyme scheme, like the  

Shakespearean sonnet, which is abab cdcd efef gg  

The Italian sonnet, which is abba abba cde cde  (The breaks between groups of letters represent a new stanza, but the rhyme scheme does NOT start over at ‘a.’)