4.3 Writer's Workshop: Poetry: Poetry Sound Devices

4.3 Writer's Workshop: Poetry

Two important elements of many poems are rhyme and rhythm. To understand these elements think of music. Rhyme is like the lyrics (words of a song) and rhythm is like the beat.

Rhyme Time

Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. - William Wordsworth

Did you notice that the last word in each line of this poem (trees and breeze) sounds the same? Like many poems, this one contains words that rhyme. Rhyme is the repetition of the same sound in two or more words.

No doubt you can tell when two words rhyme—for example, bear and care; silly and chili; wheel and feel. The end sound in each word is the same, but the beginning is different.

Rhyme can occur at the end of lines of poetry, like in the Wordsworth example above. Rhyme can also occur in the middle of a line, like in this poem:

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud.- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Many poems also have rhymes that follow a pattern. This is called a rhyme scheme. You will learn more about rhyme scheme shortly. It is helpful if you understand rhythm first.

Rhythm

We’ve all done it. Our favourite song comes on the radio and we start tapping our foot or drumming the tabletop. We are moved by the rhythm, or beat, of the music.

Poems have rhythm too. And like songs, the rhythm of a poem is often predictable. We can guess what the “beat” of one line of a poem will be after hearing or reading the previous lines. This predictable rhythm is called metre.

Rhyme schemes are always identified with letters of the alphabet: