What Rhyme Scheme Should I Use?
Quick answer: What rhyme scheme should you use? Match the scheme to the job: ABCB for stories, ABAB for steady argument, couplets for wit, or none at all. How to choose.
Use the rhyme scheme that matches your poem's job: ABCB if you are telling a story and want speed, ABAB for a steady, interwoven argument, rhyming couplets (AABB) for wit and punch, an envelope stanza (ABBA) for reflection that folds back on itself, and no scheme at all if rhyme would fight the poem's natural voice. There is no universally correct choice, only fits and misfits.
Rhyme is an engine, not an ornament. Each scheme creates a different pattern of expectation and delay, and that pattern becomes part of the poem's meaning. The practical method is to draft a stanza or two in your instinctive scheme, then test one alternative before committing, because the choice locks in your word options for every line that follows.
What each common scheme actually does
A quick field guide to the standard options.
Match the scheme to the poem's temperature
Fast, funny or narrative poems want their rhymes close together, hence couplets and ballad stanzas. Meditative and argumentative poems want rhymes spaced out, ABAB or ABBA, so the chime confirms structure without dominating. Grief and rage often want no full rhyme at all, or slant rhyme, because neat sonic closure can make raw feeling sound tidy and therefore false.
Consider your rhyme vocabulary too. English is rhyme-poor compared with Italian, so schemes demanding three or four rhymes on one sound (like the Petrarchan octave's ABBAABBA) are genuinely hard here. If your subject keeps forcing you toward 'love/above/dove', the scheme is too hungry; switch to ABCB or slant rhyme and the strain disappears.
A quick decision test
Try this with a real draft. Write your opening quatrain twice: 'The allotment gate hangs off its hinge (A) / where Dad last fixed it, spring of '09 (B) / the bindweed's taken every inch (A, slant) / of what he swore would hold the line (B).' That ABAB version feels measured, elegiac. Recast as couplets and the same material turns brisker, almost wry. Neither is wrong; they are two different poems, and only you know which one you are writing.
One more honest rule: if any line exists only to reach its rhyme, the scheme is driving and the poem is the passenger. Contest judges reading for language spot forced rhymes instantly, and in a scored competition like Writory's a natural ABCB will beat a strangled ABAB every month.
What poets can take from this
- Decide the poem's job first, story, argument, joke, lament, and let that pick the scheme.
- Default to ABCB when unsure; rhyming only half the lines keeps your syntax natural.
- Test your end words: if you cannot list four decent rhymes for a word, do not put it at a line end.
- Use slant rhyme to keep a scheme's structure while lowering its volume.
- Never let a line exist only to deliver its rhyme; rewrite the sentence instead.
- Draft one stanza in two different schemes before committing to a whole poem.
Try it yourself
Write the same four-line memory three times: as an AABB couplet pair, as ABAB, and as unrhymed free verse. Note which version sounds most like your own speaking voice, and finish that one.
Questions
Do poems have to rhyme?
No. Most contemporary published poetry does not use end rhyme. Rhyme is one musical tool among several; rhythm, lineation and internal sound patterning can carry a poem entirely.
What is the easiest rhyme scheme for beginners?
ABCB, the ballad scheme, because only the second and fourth lines rhyme. That halves the constraint and lets you keep natural word order while still getting rhyme's musical payoff.
How do I label a rhyme scheme?
Assign a letter to each end sound in order of appearance: the first sound is A, the next new sound is B, and so on. Lines sharing a letter rhyme with each other, so ABAB means lines one and three rhyme, and lines two and four rhyme.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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