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< A000041(m) denotes the set partition (compare
A231428).
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f3/Set_partitions_5%3B_list%3B_Genji_symbols.svg/220px-Set_partitions_5%3B_list%3B_Genji_symbols.svg.png)
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: AA (closed couplet)
- 2: ABA (enclosed tercet)
- 4: AAA (triplet)
- 6: ABBA (enclosed rhyme)
- 7: ABCB (simple 4-line)
- 8: ABAB (alternate rhyme)
- 9: AABA (rubāʿī)
- 11: AABB (couplet)
- 14: AAAA (monorhyme)
- 24: ABAAB
- 26: AABBA (limerick)
- 33: ABABA
- 81: ABAAAB
- 98: AABCCB
- 128: AAABAB
- 719: ABABBCC (rhyme royal)
- 2785: ABABBCBC (ballade)
- 3401: ABABABCC (ottava rima)
1
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 | 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
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 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
edit1 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. |