Why do poems rhyme?

Question

I have to write an english essay on 'The Flea' by John Donne and my teacher said I should include something about the structure and why it rhymes. Does anyone have any ideas because I am really stuck...

Answer 1

i had to do indepth analysis on that poem!! what level of the education ladder are you at the moment, it would help so i can give you more info.

anyone as an answer to your initial question, the reason poems rhyme is because not a lot of people could read. Education wasnt compulsory and only the rich could afford it. The rhyming helped people remember the poems, most were just read and passed around like that.

Its a metaphysical poem and Donne used rhymes to help the poem flow, therefore making it easier to be read out loud and remembered.

if you need any help with the poem just send me a message i'd be happy to help, didnt think i'd have had to remember that poem.

Think about the iambic pentametre and mention the "beat" of the poem for extra marks

Answer 2

You need to look at the individual poem to comment on why it rhymes. Your teacher wants you to think about how the rhyme affects the poem and the effect it has on the reader. Rhyme does aid memory but I doubt that was Donne's reason for the rhyme scheme. He used the poetic traditions of the time - that meant fairly structured meter and rhyme. The poem has three regular nine lined stanzas. Is the rhyme scheme regular - look at the end words and see if there is a pattern to the rhyme (there is, so say what it is). Check out the link below. It will really help you strucure your thoughts about this poem. Just make sure you write in your own words. Most of all, enjoy...

http://lardcave.net/tig/hsc/2eng-donne-flea-comments.html


Shoot, he's trying to get laid and talking about the 'mixing of their blood' as a euphemism for sex and in the sense of the flea having bitten them both. It is less likely an abortion scenario though this is not impossible.

Answer 3

A riming poem is neater, and has a more regular flow, than a non-rimed one. This means that riming is more suitable when the poet has a clear idea of what she needs to say, and wants to present a world which on the whole is ordered and tidy. Non-riming poems are better where the thought has breaks and eddies, or where the poet's world is muddled or complex in some way. I don't think you can choose between them. Riming poems are more like a lecture, or a lesson; an unrimed poem is more like someone having a conversation with you. Some people are more comfortable with rimed poems, because that is what they are used to. But if you turn to poetry for comfort, you are doing it wrong. ..... I am amazed that anyone can read Keats' Ode to a Nightingale and think it doesn't rime.

Answer 4

I was an English major and read the poem (and liked it because he's kind of a jerk looking for an easy lay) If I remember correctly, in the poem he's talking about her abortion of their child out of wedlock and all of the rhyme (especially the ee sounds) gives it a light cheerful tone ,which you could say the rhyme, assonance, and consonance/alliteration help the narratar prove through both words and soothing sounds and rhymes that "an abortion although not a good thing, and that no one is really at fault so it shouldn't keep her from coming back to him for more!!!
Also the rhythym is soothing (has specific rhyme scheme and beat)

Of course he is talking about them getting it on at first and the mixing of the two bloods and using the flea as an example of what he wants to do... saying as innocent as the flea was taking her blood, he would be the same if they mingled blood.... but some argue that there is more."And in this flea our two bloods mingled be".. and how it's not a sin... "this cannot be said
A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead " and later comments about that mixing which makes three "And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two " Though use make you apt to kill me,
Let not to that self-murder added be," (three thats him herself and unborn some also say it's the flea that is three)
And sacrilege, three sins in killing three.and then later comments on the innocent blood she spills by aborting her child/or once again just the flea , and later says it's okay, because it wasn't really my fault and I want to have sex again!!!! "'Tis true ; then learn how false fears be ;
Just so much honour, when thou yield'st to me,"

Answer 5

Poetry rhymes because one person did that, and it grew. Now there are many different possibilities for the forms, and kinds of poetry some rhyming and some not.

Those that do rhyme help the poem flow, and roll off the tongue easier. It becomes more interesting, etc.

Answer 6

They don't all rhyme. Modern poetry is often what is known as "blank verse" which has rhythm but no rhyme, or "free verse" which has neither one.
Why poems rhyme is because they are easier to remember/memorize, and they create a feeling of rhythm and repetition which is pleasant.
I think what your teacher is asking you to do is to identify what is called the "rhyme scheme", which is the pattern of rhyming words in the poem. So if all the words at the end of the even-numbered lines rhyme, and the odd-numbered ones all rhyme with each other, that would be abab. If it's every third line, it would be abc, abc. And like that.

Answer 7

Could be onomatopoeia, which means that the words that the words the poet uses try to sound like the subject of the poem, e.g. the sausages sizzled in the pan - the word sizzled is onomatopoetic as it is a word which sounds like the actual noise that the sausages make. I don't know the poem, though, so I'm just guessing - could you give me a few lines?
Otherwise, it could be to add rhythm to the poem, so that it sounds good when read aloud.
To talk about the structure, you could mention the length of the stanzas, number of syllables per line or things like alliteration (where certain letters of a word are repeated to sound like the subject of the poem) e.g. seven, snakes smoothly slithered through the grass.
Hope this helps x

Answer 8

not all poems rhyme. if it's a specific type of poem and that type is supposed to rhyme then thats why it rhymes, or just because the author wanted it to rhyme to make it sound better.

░▓░▓░▓░ thats pretty much all i can think of to say...

Answer 9

I try to make my poems rhyme
Nearly almost all the time


'A flea and a fly in a flue
Were imprisoned, so what could they do?
Said the flea "Let us fly!"
Said the fly "Let us flee!"
So they flew through a flaw in the flue'
...is that the poem you're studying?

Answer 10

I reciently had to learn about this. It is just the syle. Not all poems rhymes ya know. that might not help, I'll try to put more info here once i find what i learned!