Types of Rhyme Schemes

A poem's rhyme scheme can be anything the poet wants it to be, but here's a list of some of the more common rhyme schemes:

• Alternate rhyme is ABAB CDCD EFEF and so on. This is the rhyme scheme typically used in ballads.
• Coupled rhyme is any rhyme scheme in which rhymes occur in pairs, such as AABBCC. The rhymes themselves are called couplets.
• Monorhyme is the term used for poems that use just one rhyme throughout the entire poem, as in AAAA.
• Enclosed rhyme is the term used for "sandwich" rhyme schemes like ABA or ABBA.
• Simple 4-line rhyme follows a pattern of ABCB.
• Chain rhyme describes rhyme schemes in which stanzas are linked together by rhymes that carry over from one stanza to the next, as in ABA BCB CDC.

Keep in mind that this is just a list of some of the more common types of rhyme scheme. It's not a list of all the different forms of poetry, since the form of a poem is defined by more than just its rhyme scheme.

Coupled Rhyme in Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who!

Dr. Seuss wrote many of his children's books in formal verse. The opening stanza of his book Horton Hears a Who, excerpted below, uses a simple rhyme scheme of coupled rhyme (AABB).

On the fifteenth of May, in the jungle of Nool,

In the heat of the day, in the cool of the pool,

He was splashing... enjoying the jungle's great joys...

When Horton the elephant heard a small noise.

Chain Rhyme in Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

In the excerpt of Frost's poem shown here, the B rhyme of the first stanza is taken up as the predominant rhyme in the second stanza, while the C rhyme in the second stanza then becomes the predominant line in the third stanza—making the rhyme scheme an example of chain rhyme (in which stanzas are linked together by rhymes that carry over from one stanza to the next).

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.