Rhyme schemes by set partition

The rhyme scheme of a poem or stanza can be denoted by a pair (m,n), where m is the number of lines and 0≤n<Sloane'sA000041(m) denotes the set partition (compare Sloane'sA231428).

The first 52 set partitions with Genji chapter symbols

Usually the last line will rhyme with some other line, so n implies m - e.g. all schemes between 5 and 14 imply four lines.

The first Bell(5) = 52 set partitions are shown on the right (with Tale of Genji chapter symbols). The first Bell(8) = 4140 are here.

Contents


1 edit

1 2 or AA (closed couplet)

End of I shall forget you presently, my dear by Edna St. Vincent Millay

1 Whether or not we find what we are seeking
2 Is idle, biologically speaking.

2 edit

1 3 | 2 or ABA (enclosed tercet)

First stanza of Ode to the West Wind by Percy Shelley

1 O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being
2 Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead
3 Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing

4 edit

1 2 3 or AAA (triplet)

From The Phoenix and the Turtle by William Shakespeare

1 Death is now the phoenix' nest
2 And the turtle's loyal breast
3 To eternity doth rest

6 edit

1 4 | 2 3 or ABBA (enclosed rhyme)

First stanza of Days Too Short by William Davies

1 When primroses are out in Spring,
2 And small blue violets come between;
3 When merry birds sing on boughs green,
4 And rills, as soon as born, must sing.

7 edit

1 | 2 4 | 3 or ABCB (simple 4-line)

First stanza of Million Man March Poem by Maya Angelou

1 The night has been long,
2 The wound has been deep,
3 The pit has been dark,
4 And the walls have been steep.

8 edit

1 3 | 2 4 or ABAB (alternate rhyme)

1 Bid me to weep, and I will weep
2 While I have eyes to see;
3 And having none, yet I will keep
4 A heart to weep for thee.

9 edit

1 2 4 | 3 or AABA (rubāʿī)

From Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost

1 My little horse must think it queer
2 To stop without a farmhouse near
3 Between the woods and frozen lake
4 The darkest evening of the year.

11 edit

1 2 | 3 4 or AABB (couplet)

From Mr. Sandman by Pat Ballard

1 Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream
2 Make him the cutest that I've ever seen
3 Give him two lips like roses and clover
4 Then tell him that his lonesome nights are over

14 edit

1 2 3 4 or AAAA (monorhyme)

First stanza of The Older I Get by Danielle White

1 I once heard the whisper of falling snow,
2 saw a spark in the eye of a coal-black crow,
3 felt the power and awe of a swift river's flow,
4 the older I get, the less I know.

24 edit

1 3 4 | 2 5 or ABAAB

First stanza of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

1 Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
2 And sorry I could not travel both
3 And be one traveler, long I stood
4 And looked down one as far as I could
5 To where it bent in the undergrowth

26 edit

1 2 5 | 3 4 or AABBA (limerick)

1 There once was a short man from Ealing,
2 Who got on a bus to Darjeeling.
3 It said on the door:
4 "Please don't spit on the floor!"
5 So he carefully spat on the ceiling.

33 edit

1 3 5 | 2 4 or ABABA

Beginning of the ring verse by J. R. R. Tolkien

1 Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
2 Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
3 Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
4 One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
5 In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

The complete poem would be scheme 2451 (ABABACCA).


81 edit

1 3 4 5 | 2 6 or ABAAAB

From Sylvie and Bruno Concluded, chapter 23, by Lewis Carroll

1 There was a Pig that sat alone
2 Beside a ruined Pump:
3 By day and night he made his moan –
4 It would have stirred a heart of stone
5 To see him wring his hoofs and groan,
6 Because he could not jump.


98 edit

1 2 | 3 6 | 4 5 or AABCCB

From Over The Rainbow by Judy Garland

1 Someday I'll wish upon a star
2 And wake up where the clouds are far
3 Behind me
4 Where troubles melt like lemon drops
5 Away above the chimney tops
6 That's where you'll find me

128 edit

1 2 3 5 | 4 6 or AAABAB

From A Valentine by Lewis Carroll

1 Must he then only live to weep,
2 Who'd prove his friendship true and deep
3 By day a lonely shadow creep,
4 At night-time languish,
5 Oft raising in his broken sleep
6 The moan of anguish?


719 edit

1 3 | 2 4 5 | 6 7 or ABABBCC (rhyme royal)

First stanza of They Flee From Me by Thomas Wyatt

1 They flee from me that sometime did me seek
2 With naked foot, stalking in my chamber.
3 I have seen them gentle, tame, and meek,
4 That now are wild and do not remember
5 That sometime they put themself in danger
6 To take bread at my hand; and now they range,
7 Busily seeking with a continual change.

(Did danger rhyme with chamber and remember in the 16th century?)

2785 edit

1 3 | 2 4 5 7 | 6 8 or ABABBCBC (the usual rhyme scheme of a ballade)

First stanza of Ballade of a Ship by Edwin Arlington Robinson

1 Down by the flash of the restless water
2 The dim White Ship like a white bird lay;
3 Laughing at life and the world they sought her,
4 And out she swung to the silvering bay.
5 Then off they flew on their roystering way,
6 And the keen moon fired the light foam flying
7 Up from the flood where the faint stars play,
8 And the bones of the brave in the wave are lying.

3401 edit

1 3 5 | 2 4 6 | 7 8 or ABABABCC (ottava rima)

From Don Juan by George Byron

1 "Go, little book, from this my solitude!
2 I cast thee on the waters – go thy ways!
3 And if, as I believe, thy vein be good,
4 The world will find thee after many days."
5 When Southey's read, and Wordsworth understood,
6 I can't help putting in my claim to praise –
7 The four first rhymes are Southey's every line:
8 For God's sake, reader! take them not for mine.