Poetry Rhyme

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

• What is poetry?

Poetry is a special form of writing that is pleasing the ear. Good poetry uses descriptive words, and it sometimes has rhyme and rhythm too. All these things work together to stir the emotions of the reader.

When you write poetry, you begin each line with a capital letter.

Poetry does not have to rhyme, as in the above poem. When looking for rhyming words in a poem, look at the last word in each line.

Before you can identify a rhyme scheme, you need to know if words rhyme or not. Words rhyme when they have the same end sound. Look at the following words.

• cat
• hat
• bat

These words rhyme because they all end with the at sound.

• What about some larger words?
• Can you think of a word that rhymes with the house?

The words mouse and louse rhyme with house because they have the same end sound.

Take out a sheet of paper and a pencil. As you watch this short video clip, write down how poetry is organized and define rhyme scheme.

Different rhyme patterns are used when you use rhyme in poetry. If you had a ten-line poem, the word at the end of each line would not necessarily be the same ending sound.

That's what rhyme scheme means. The first two lines might rhyme, and then the next two rhyme, or every other line rhymes.

Look at a few examples of this.

Trees

by Joyce Kilmer

• I think that I shall never see
• A poem lovely as a tree.

• A tree that looks at God all day,
• And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

• A tree that may in summer wear
• A nest of robins in her hair;

• Poems are made by fools like me,
• But only God can make a tree.

Notice that this poem is arranged into groups of lines called stanzas. A stanza can be identified because there are no spaces between the lines.

When the stanza ends, there is a space before the new stanza begins. In this poem, there are two lines in each stanza.

The two words at the end of the first stanza are see and tree.

• Do see and tree rhyme?

Yes, they do! Label these two lines with the letter A to denote the first rhyming pattern.

The two words at the end of the second stanza are day and pray.

• Do day and pray rhyme?

Yes, they do.

• Do they rhyme with see and tree?

No, they do not. Label these lines with the letter B to show where the new rhyme pattern starts.

The two words at the end of the third stanza are wear and hair.

• Do wear and hair rhyme?

Yes, they do.

• Do they rhyme with see and tree?
• Do they rhyme with day and pray?

No, they do not. Label them with the letter C to show a new rhyme pattern.

The two words at the end of the last stanza are me and tree.

• Do me and tree rhyme?
• Do they rhyme with see and tree?

Yes they do.

• So, what letter should be used to show the rhyme pattern?

It's not a new pattern, so label it with A to show that this stanza's rhyme matches that of the first stanza.

Trees

by Joyce Kilmer

Remember that the end sound of the last word in each line determines a rhyme scheme or pattern. That scheme can take many different patterns.

Continue to the Got It? section to practice identifying a rhyme scheme.