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Vsuresh Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Rhyme scheme

Hi

Can you tell me whether I have given the rhyme scheme right?


I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. - For this octave -ab ab ac dc
And on the pedestal these words appear --
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.'

For this sestet - ab cd cd
  

Top answer

Note that this is iambic pentameter, the meter that all of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets are written in. The rhyme scheme appears to be: ababa cdc (land/stone/sand/frown/command - read/things/fed) ede fef (appear/kings/despair - decay/bare/away)

  • Note that this is iambic pentameter, the meter that all of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets are written in.
  • The rhyme scheme appears to be: ababa cdc (land/stone/sand/frown/command - read/things/fed) ede fef (appear/kings/despair - decay/bare/away)
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4 Answers
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Note that this is iambic pentameter, the meter that all of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets are written in. The rhyme scheme appears to be:

ababa cdc (land/stone/sand/frown/command - read/things/fed)

ede fef (appear/kings/despair - decay/bare/away)
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I met a traveller from an antique land a
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone b
Stand in the desert... Near them, on the sand, a
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, (b)
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, a
Tell that its
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Thank you, anonymous.

Thank you very much, CJ
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I might mention that this appears to be a sonnet, not Shakespearean, but one of the several other types of sonnets. Thus, the rhyme scheme is some standard pattern that characterizes that particular type of sonnet. Also, the eighth line often gives trouble to readers. What this means is: "...its sculptor well those passions read which yet survive...the [sculptor's] hand that mocked them [i.e.:

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