What are rhyme schemes?

A rhyme scheme is like a pattern of how words at the end of lines in a poem match each other, just like how your socks match when you pair them up.

Imagine you're writing a little story with four sentences. If the last word of the first and third sentence sound the same, like "cat" and "hat", they rhyme. And if the second and fourth sentence also rhyme, say, "dog" and "log", that's a pattern. This pattern is your rhyme scheme.

Think of a poem like a song you sing with your friends. If you all have to match your lines to each other, it’s easier if you follow a rule: maybe every time you get to the end of a line, you say a word that rhymes with someone else's.

For example:

• I see a cat (line 1)
• You see a dog (line 2)
• I see a hat (line 3)
• You see a log (line 4)

Here, lines 1 and 3 rhyme (cat and hat), and lines 2 and 4 rhyme (dog and log). This makes the rhyme scheme look like A B A B, where each letter stands for a different sound.

So next time you read or write a poem, think of it as matching socks, fun, simple, and always in style!