Question

Read these lines from Emily Dickinson's poem "324" ("Some keep the Sabbath going to Church"):

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –
I keep it, staying at Home –
With a Bobolink for a Chorister –
And an Orchard, for a Dome –


What is the rhyme scheme she uses here?

A. abcb


B. abab


C. aabb


D. abca

Answer 1

What is the rhyme scheme she uses here?

A. abcb

Answer 2

Answer: A. abcb

In this excerpt, Dickinson uses the rhyme scheme "abcb," as she rhymes "home" with "dome."

A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes that a poem has. When we write out a rhyme scheme, we use letters to indicate which lines rhyme. Lines that have the same letter rhyme with each other. Therefore, in this example, the lines that end with "home" and "dome" are both labelled "b."