Rhyme schemes basically identify sounds at the end of
lines in poetry, with a letter assigned for each new
sound.
Shakespearean (also known as Elizabethan) sonnets
have the rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
Italian (also
known as Petrarchan) sonnets have the rhyme scheme of ABBA ABBA CDE CDE (though there
are other forms of this kind of sonnet).
The Spenserian
sonnet's rhyme scheme is ABAB BCBC CDCD EE.
To understand
the rhyme scheme, it helps to remember that each letter represents a sound, and the same
letter repeated indicates words that rhyme—based on the LAST word of each
line.
In "The Vanity of Human Wishes" by Samuel Johnson,
the first "stanza" has twenty lines. (The stanzas are long.) In charting a rhyme
scheme, a new letter is used for each new sound. The lines are paired and rhyme in this
poem: these pairs are called rhyming couplets (as in
"couple").
In charting rhyme schemes in the past, my
understanding is that with each new sound, a new letter is
assigned for that new sound. With this in mind, the first two lines that end in "view"
and "Peru" are assigned the letter A. The next pair of lines rhyme with each other, but
not with the first two lines, so the letter changes for the new end rhyme in those
lines. The next two, "strife" and "life" are assigned B, and so
on.
Based on my understanding of charting rhyme schemes,
the rhyme scheme for this poem is:
AA BB CC DD EE FF GG HH
II JJ.
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