Rhyme schemes for your Sinterklaas poem
A rhyme scheme is simply the order in which the end sounds of your lines come back. You give each sound a letter. If two lines rhyme with each other, they get the same letter. That is all there is to it. Still, the scheme changes a lot about how a poem sounds, and how easy it is to write. Here are the three schemes you need for a Sinterklaas poem. The examples are in English so you can hear the pattern at once, and the same patterns work in Dutch.
Couplets (AABB)
Line 1 rhymes with line 2, line 3 with line 4. This is the scheme of almost every children's poem and of most Sinterklaas poems. It is easy to write, because every rhyme word gets its partner straight away. And it is easy to follow, even when you hear it read aloud in a noisy living room.
Dan plays his game from dusk till late, his tea goes cold upon the plate. Put the controller down tonight, Sint has a story by candlelight.
Use couplets when you want to be funny. The punchline falls on the second line of each pair, and that is exactly where the listener expects the click of the rhyme. So you can build a joke in line 1 and let it land in line 2.
Alternate rhyme (ABAB)
Line 1 rhymes with line 3, line 2 with line 4. The poem has more movement, because the rhyme makes you wait a moment. That suits a calmer, slightly story-like poem.
Rose keeps a garden bright with flowers, where every neighbour stops to stare. She names them all through sun and showers, and gives each one the proper care.
The tricky part is that you have to keep two rhyme sounds open at the same time. So write down the four rhyme words first and build the lines around them. You will see at once whether both pairs are available. In the rhyme dictionary you can check that in a few seconds.
Alternate rhyme works well for the warm closing verse of a poem, or for a poem about someone you know well and want to say a bit more about.
Enclosed rhyme (ABBA)
Lines 1 and 4 rhyme, and in between, lines 2 and 3 rhyme. The rhyme sound of the first line is, so to speak, embraced by the last. This scheme is the most elegant and gives a verse something rounded off.
Bram cooks for everyone on the street, with pots and spice and roaring fire, but dinner takes an hour or higher before there's anything to eat.
Enclosed rhyme lends itself to a small punchline. The middle two lines form a little inner room, and the fourth line snaps the verse shut. In the example above the punchline is in line 3: it takes an hour. Line 4 confirms it with a sigh.
The downside is that in longer poems this scheme sounds a bit contrived. Use it for one or two verses in a poem rather than for the whole poem.
Mixing is allowed, but with a plan
A poem does not have to stick to one scheme. A common set-up is to write the verses in couplets and the closing verse in a different scheme, so that the change tells the listener at once that it is now getting more serious or more personal. Do not switch back and forth at random, because the listener then loses the expectation of where the rhyme will fall.
Which scheme should you choose?
- You are writing for children or for a noisy group: couplets.
- You mainly want to land jokes: couplets.
- You are telling a short story about someone: alternate rhyme.
- You want to end a verse with a punchline: enclosed rhyme.
- You are a beginner or short on time: couplets.
Sound counts, spelling does not
Rhyme is about what you hear. It is about the last stressed vowel and everything that comes after it. So night rhymes with kite although the spelling differs, while though and through look alike and do not rhyme at all. Make sure the stress is right too. In Dutch, fantasie and harmonie rhyme because both are stressed on the last syllable. Read every rhyming pair aloud before you write it down.
Once you know which scheme you want, go to the writing studio. There you can fix the scheme, and the rhyme help will then think along about words that fit that pattern.