[Jerry Wielenga]

Hi all,

Is there a name - and are there examples - of a rhyme scheme that goes as follows:

a
a
a

a
b
b

b
b
c

c
c
c

Hope someone can drop a name for this rhyme scheme, together with some useful examples.

In particular, I'm having trouble with the last line of the 3rd stanza, because at that point there are no rhymes that support it. Only once the 4th stanza is started, can supporting rhymes for the final line of the 3rd stanza be found. Hope someone understands what I'm going on about here...

Thanks,

Fugwozzle

[This message has been edited by Fugwozzle (edited September 14, 2001).]

[RCL]

Fug, don't recognize this one, but it vaguely resembles terza rima (invented by Dante)as used by Frost in "Acquainted with the Night":

a
b
a

b
c
b

c
d
c

d
e
d

e
e


Frost called a variation in "Stopping by Woods" an "interlocking" scheme: aaba bbcb ccdc dddd.

Others may be more helpful.

------------------
Ralph



[This message has been edited by RCL (edited September 14, 2001).]

[A. E. Stallings]

Dear Fugwozzle,

Although you've divided this up into tercets, it might be easier to think of the rime scheme thus:

a
a
a
a

b
b
b
b

c
c
c
c

Perhaps there are examples, or a name. I don't know. (Double couplets?) Generally, though, three rimes in a row are just about as much as the ear can take without tiring. If the poem resists a contrived rime scheme, I'd STRONGLY suggest breaking with it (the scheme, not the poem).

[Jerry Wielenga]

Thanks for the help RCL and Alicia! I hope I won't be imposing on anyone by posting the poem I'm working on right here. Its not finished yet, but uses the rhyme-scheme referred to above, so I hope you'll comment specifically on the rhyme scheme:

Always carry mace

Ted used to dance a lot until, one day while at the zoo,
caged hippos saw him make his moves. One ran away, she knew
that Ted could teach her how to dance. So to his arms she flew.

When a hippo wants to dance with you, your dancing-days are through,
for largely they are lumbering lumps that plod and thud around,
so few of these huge creatures on the dancing-floor are found.

They tend to bump when they should grind, they sometimes dump a pound
of shit upon the dancing-floor. They roll upon the ground,
which is why a dancing hippo is so strangely out of place.

But she just loved to dance with him, with a smile upon her face,
while he'd be shelling out his cash for every broken vase,
until he'd had enough of her and sprayed her with his mace.


[This message has been edited by Fugwozzle (edited September 20, 2001).]

[robert mezey]

Bob, part of the brilliance of "Stopping by Woods on a
Snowy Evening" is that Frost is playing off of two very
different stanza forms, terza rima as you mentioned, and
also the Rubaiyat stanza. Jim Wright wrote a very good
little essay on the effect of that combination.

[RCL]

Robert, thanks for the additonal info (by the way, I'm Ralph, RCL, poster of the Frost response).

------------------
Ralph

[Rhina P. Espaillat]

Fugwozzle, I suspect you get away with 4 rhymes in a row--Alicia's right, that should be hard to take--only because your lines are so long that the rhymes don't repeat very close together. Hilarious poem.