The Rhyme Scheme
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The Shakespearean rhyme scheme is A,B,A,B,C,D,C,D,E,F,E,F,G,G. In this case the 1st and 3rd lines rhyme, while 2nd and 4th rhyme. When you get to a line that does not rhyme with any of the others, you change letters (in alphabetical order). Some of the rhymes are visible (ex. both ends with en). The others sounds like they rhyme (ex. hear and there).
The Shakespearean rhyme scheme is this way because it makes the sonnet easy to follow, and it is flexible. Shakespeare wrote
Sonnet 147 (with rhyme scheme)
A My love is as a fever, longing still
B For that which longer nurseth the disease,
A Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
B The uncertain sickly appetite to please.
C My reason, the physician to my love,
D Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
C Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
D Desire is death, which physic did except.
E Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
F And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
E My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,
F At random from the truth vainly express'd;
G For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright, (rhyming couplet)
G Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. (rhyming couplet)
B For that which longer nurseth the disease,
A Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill,
B The uncertain sickly appetite to please.
C My reason, the physician to my love,
D Angry that his prescriptions are not kept,
C Hath left me, and I desperate now approve
D Desire is death, which physic did except.
E Past cure I am, now reason is past care,
F And frantic-mad with evermore unrest;
E My thoughts and my discourse as madmen's are,
F At random from the truth vainly express'd;
G For I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright, (rhyming couplet)
G Who art as black as hell, as dark as night. (rhyming couplet)
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