Download Shakespeare`s Rhyme Scheme

Shakespeare's Rhyme Scheme
by Barry Wright
Essay: Shakespeare's Rhyme Scheme
Pages: 10
Rating: 3 stars
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William Shakespeare’s “Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore” is an English sonnet about the nature
of time, in which Shakespeare both follows and deviates from the traditional sonnet form. Reading the poem with
this in mind gives the poem an additional dimension, bringing the reader to consider why this has been done, and
how it impacts the poem’s meaning. Shakespeare has modeled the external structure of the poem to coincide with
this message that time is a destructive force whose wrath is unavoidable, and this is evident upon examination of
his use of a consistent rhyme scheme, his employment of occasional trochees and spondees, and his adherence to
the structure of three quatrains and a couplet.
This poem follows the traditional rhyme scheme of an English sonnet, which achieves the effect of the continuous
passage of time. Shakespeare rhymes the last word of the first and third lines, as well as the last word of the
second and fourth lines, using different rhymes in each quatrain and the final couplet. One main idea of this poem
is that time is a linear force, consistently moving forward, and Shakespeare’s use of an “ABAB CDCD EFEF GG”
rhyme scheme mirrors this concept flawlessly. The rhyme scheme helps the poem to maintain a continuous
progression, with each rhyming word “changing places with that which goes before,” exactly like Shakespeare
describes the behaviour of minutes (3). Just as Shakespeare feels that nothing can escape the wrath of time,
nothing can escape this rhyme scheme, Shakespeare follows it strictly, helping to prove his point.
While Shakespeare’s use of trochees and spondees is not so strict, it also helps to illustrate Shakespeare’s message
by mirroring the crashing attac...