I thought I understood the basics of rhyme schemes, until I read this from literarydevices.net I understand how the lettering corresponds to the lines, but what I'm not clear on is why this would be said to have the scheme of ABAB, when the latter part of this poem goes CCDD. Why does the CCDD part not count? Is the scheme only determined by the first four lines of a poem?
Because the CDCD part (I assume that's a mistake, since I believe it should be "CDCD", not "CCDD" since "pass" and "hull" or "glass" and "gull" don't rhyme) is a separate stanza and the lines end in different sounds then the lines in the first stanza. No, it is determined by the entire poem's rhyme scheme.
You're correct about CCDD - never noticed that - but I'm still not getting this. Why do you say the CDCD is a separate stanza? I thought stanzas were divided by a blank line? As for the ABAB - are you saying this is the scheme because CDCD follows the same pattern (even though they're different letters because they're separate rhyme words)? So if there was a third stanza with its own rhyme set, which was EFEF - the scheme would STILL be ABAB, because the pattern is consistent? So what if there was a three stanza poem that went ABAB CCCE FFGG - what would that scheme be? Would you have to say it was ABABCCCEFFGG ?
In the original poem it is separated by a blank line just like any old stanza, not sure why it's not on the site you saw it on. (Original poem) Yes. I am honestly not sure about this one. I'm not sure what the rule is if each stanza has it's own rhyme scheme.
Okay. Thanks anyway - so glad I now understand the defining of schemes. It had been bugging me. I think, logically, and if asked, the answer would have to be "Well, it hasn't really got a set scheme, but technically the overall scheme is ABABCCCDEEFF." In other words, if each stanza has it's own scheme, then they all have to be quoted when defining the scheme. This is only my guess, though.
Why the need to make it so complicated? If it's regular across all stanzas just say what it is (i.e. cross rhyme, alternate, enclosed...); if it's irregular just say it's irregular. In a reading of the poem, you would then just point out which words rhyme and why... unless you consider yourself a taxonomist of poetry, I suppose - then I'd agree that you should go through the alphabet rather than returning to 'A' int he next stanza.
You can do that, of course, but there's no getting away from the fact a poem's rhyme scheme would be shown as ABAB (or whatever) or at least it's my understanding it is. I was just trying to get my head around how this system works.
