PLEASE What is the rhyme scheme of this poem?

Question

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Answer 1

The stanzas, as in most of Dickinson's lyrics, rhyme loosely in an ABCB scheme, though in this poem there are some incidental carryover rhymes: "words" in line three of the first stanza rhymes with "heard" and "Bird" in the second; "Extremity" rhymes with "Sea" and "Me" in the third stanza, thus, technically conforming to an ABBB rhyme scheme.

Answer 2

If you rearrange the verses from 4 lijnes to 2 lines you will find how it rhymes! The bit of internal rhyming just adds to the interest.

BTW here is a treatise on poetry I wrote some time ago and MIGHT interest all you poets out there.

WORKING DEFINITION OF POETRY:

Poetry is an appeal to the emotions in musical and measured verse.

THE FUNCTION OF METRE IN REAL POETRY.

Each syllable in a word may be long or short. This statement

is a statement of fact and has nothing to do with poetry. It

has to do with the way English is spoken universally.

The word "long" consists of one syllable, which is long.

The word "short" consists of one syllable, which is short.

" syllable " itself has three syllables, short, short, short.

" . . . " (dot, dot, dot) is one way of marking them.

This idea is taken, of course, from Morse Code but Morse himself
may have borrowed the idea from Poets who went before him. Let us
borrow further from Morse,illustrating LONG syllables by 'dashes'

" Tony! Come in now! Your dinner is poured out! "
- - ! . . - ! . . . . - . !

" Albert! Shut your mouth! Your brains are leaking out!
. . ! . . - ! . - . - . - !

The one, and only, essential difference between Prose and Poetry is that in PROSE there need be no pattern to syllables and stresses. However, you are gently pointed towards Wm. Shakespeare who is a past Master of the art of writing 'Prose' with beautiful syllabic patterns.

By definition, Poetry has very carefully patterned syllables. The pattern REPEATS as in a Persian carpet or an Aran sweater.
The repetition may be line-by-line or every second line, or maybe three lines share the same pattern and a fourth one is different. The range of patterns is almost infinitely variable,
but in any one poem the pattern, once established, will be retained from start to finish.

Consider the following classic from Oliver Goldsmith;

lines taken from " The Deserted Village ".


" A man severe he was and stern to view
. . . - . . . - . -

I knew him well and every truant knew
. - . . . . . - . -

Full well the boding tremblers learned to trace
. . . - . . . - . -

The days disasters in his morning face."
. - . . . . . - . -

The pattern is devastatingly simple and uncluttered but is the work of a master craftsman, as will be shown when the pattern is put to minute scrutiny. We have dealt, to date, with the simple notion of short and long vowels. Normal speech is much more subtle. We will all have experienced TONE and STRESS in the spoken word and will know that a clever and competent orator can put a wealth of meaning into otherwise pedantic speech by skilful use of tone or stress.


Syllables may be "stressed" or "unstressed" in 'NORMAL' speech.

We can use = for LONG stressed vowels.
: for SHORT stressed ones.

" Tony! Come in now! Your dinner is poured out!
- . . . - . . . . - .
could become...... (only one of many possibilities)
" Tony! Come in now! Your dinner is poured out!
= : ! . . = ! . . . . - : !

The caller wants TONY, rather than Mary and wants him NOW
rather than later.

See what happens when we apply this system to Goldsmith!
A very definite pattern emerges and keeps repeating.

" A man sev-ere he was and stern to view
. : . = . : . = . =
I knew him well and every tru- ant knew
. = . : . : . = . =
Full well the bod- ing tremblers learned to trace
. : . = . : . = . =
The days dis- as - ters in his morn- ing face.
. = . : . : . = . =

Going across each line, every second syllable is stressed
On the second and fourth lines, the second syllable is long
On the first and third lines the second syllable is short.
The fourth syllable in these pairs is opposite to the second.
You will find other patterns if you look carefully.

lineone . : . = . : . = . =
linetwo . = . : . : . = . =
linetre . : . = . : . = . =
linefwr . = . : . : . = . =

This is what REAL POETRY is about.
Shaun Wall June 1993

Answer 3

ABCB
CDCD
EFFF

If you count "soul" as near rhyme with "all,"
and "storm" with "warm."

Answer 4

a
b
c
d (all might be supposed to rhyme with soul...)

d
e
d
e

f
g
g
g

It doesn't have a pattern that I can see...

Answer 5

g
u
k
w

y
r
y
r

y
r
r
r