Basic Structure and Rhyme Scheme
The rhyme scheme of the entire sonnet is ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG. There are three quatrains and a concluding couplet. The scheme allows the couplet to serve as a sufficient conclusion. The lines are short and to the point so the Speaker’s point is obvious. The rhyming words “thee” and “be” are strong words that leave a lingering sound to emphasize the effect of the message that the speaker is sending to the addressee.
Read more about this topic: Sonnet 4
Famous quotes containing the words basic, structure, rhyme and/or scheme:
“Scientific reason, with its strict conscience, its lack of prejudice, and its determination to question every result again the moment it might lead to the least intellectual advantage, does in an area of secondary interest what we ought to be doing with the basic questions of life.”
—Robert Musil (1880–1942)
“I’m a Sunday School teacher, and I’ve always known that the structure of law is founded on the Christian ethic that you shall love the Lord your God and your neighbor as yourself—a very high and perfect standard. We all know the fallibility of man, and the contentions in society, as described by Reinhold Niebuhr and many others, don’t permit us to achieve perfection.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“In mockery I have set
A powerful emblem up,
And sing it rhyme upon rhyme
In mockery of a time
Half dead at the top.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“In the scheme of our national government, the presidency is preeminently the people’s office.”
—Grover Cleveland (1837–1908)