What Are Rhyming Couplets Used For

[Lutgarda Briseno]

In poetry, a couplet is a pair of lines in a verse. Typically, they rhyme and have the same meter or rhythm. They make up a unit or complete thought. Expand your poetic mind through a definition of rhyming couplets and rhyming couplet examples.

Before you dive right into rhyming couplet examples, you need to have a solid definition of what a rhyming couplet is. To understand what a rhyming couplet is, you just have to look at the phrase: rhyming couplet.

You'll notice that the two lines of poetry are similar in length. Both have six syllables and the words tense and sense rhyme. Well, that is a rhyming couplet at play. Explore this poetic device more through several rhyming couplet examples.

Rhyming couplets don't just stand alone. They can be part of large famous works like those from literary wordsmiths such as Pope and Dryden. Explore a few classic couplet examples created by poetry masters.

One of the greatest wordsmiths of all time, William Shakespeare, who's actually credited with creating English words, also liked to add a couplet or two to his writing. Explore some of the great couplets found in Shakespeare's famous plays and poems.

Now you can see how rhyming couplets work. Thanks to their short and succinct form, they are a good way to produce a startling or dramatic effect in a poem or provide a sense of completion to the piece. For more on the use of couplets, see famous couplet examples.

In poetry, a couplet or distich is a pair of successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there is a grammatical pause at the end of a line of verse. In a run-on (open) couplet, the meaning of the first line continues to the second.[1]

The word "couplet" comes from the French word meaning "two pieces of iron riveted or hinged together". The term "couplet" was first used to describe successive lines of verse in Sir P. Sidney's Arcadia in 1590: "In singing some short coplets, whereto the one halfe beginning, the other halfe should answere."[2]

While couplets traditionally rhyme, not all do. Poems may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets in iambic pentameter are called heroic couplets. John Dryden in the 17th century and Alexander Pope in the 18th century were both well known for their writing in heroic couplets. The Poetic epigram is also in the couplet form. Couplets can also appear as part of more complex rhyme schemes, such as sonnets.

Rhyming couplets are one of the simplest rhyme schemes in poetry. Because the rhyme comes so quickly, it tends to call attention to itself. Good rhyming couplets tend to "explode" as both the rhyme and the idea come to a quick close in two lines. Here are some examples of rhyming couplets where the sense as well as the sound "rhymes":

Regular rhyme was not originally a feature of English poetry: Old English verse came in metrically paired units somewhat analogous to couplets, but constructed according to alliterative verse principles. The rhyming couplet entered English verse in the early Middle English period through the imitation of medieval Latin and Old French models.[3] The earliest surviving examples are a metrical paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer in short-line couplets, and the Poema Morale in septenary (or "heptameter") couplets, both dating from the twelfth century.[4]

Rhyming couplets were often used in Middle English and early modern English poetry. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, for instance, is predominantly written in rhyming couplets, and Chaucer also incorporated a concluding couplet into his rhyme royal stanza. Similarly, Shakespearean sonnets often employ rhyming couplets at the end to emphasize the theme. Take one of Shakespeare's most famous sonnets, Sonnet 18, for example (the rhyming couplet is shown in italics):

In the late seventeenth century and early eighteenth-century English rhyming couplets achieved the zenith of their prestige in English verse, in the popularity of heroic couplets. The heroic couplet was used by famous poets for ambitious translations of revered Classical texts, for instance, in John Dryden's translation of the Aeneid and in Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad.[6]

Though poets still sometimes write in couplets, the form fell somewhat from favour in English in the twentieth century; contemporary poets writing in English sometimes prefer unrhymed couplets, distinguished by layout rather than by matching sounds.[7]

Couplets called duilian may be seen on doorways in Chinese communities worldwide. Duilian displayed as part of the Chinese New Year festival, on the first morning of the New Year, are called chunlian (春联). These are usually purchased at a market a few days before and glued to the doorframe. The text of the couplets is often traditional and contains hopes for prosperity. Other chunlian reflect more recent concerns. For example, the CCTV New Year's Gala usually promotes couplets reflecting current political themes in mainland China.

It's easy to identify a couplet when the couplet is a stanza of only two lines, but the term "couplet" may also be used to specify a pair of consecutive lines within a longer stanza. Although technically any two consecutive lines of verse can be referred to as a couplet, there are certain properties that make it more appropriate to refer to a grouping of two lines within a longer stanza as a couplet. Below is an explanation of how best to identify couplets in the context of whether they're stand-alone or exist within a longer stanza, or whether they're rhymed or unrhymed.

Couplets are easiest to identify when they stand alone. Sometimes a couplet stands alone because it forms an entire two-line poem. For example, Alexander Pope's famous two-line epigram that he engraved on the collar of a puppy given to the Prince of Wales:

Other couplets stand alone because a poem's double line breaks create two-line stanzas. For example, Robert Creeley's poem "The Whip" is written entirely in couplets without rhyme. Here are the first two stanzas:

However, a poem does not have to be entirely broken into couplets to include stand-alone couplets; couplets also occur in poems with stanzas of varying lengths. For example, the first two stanzas of Robert Creeley's poem "The Innocence" are a couplet followed by a tercet:

Though stanzas that are exactly two lines long are the clearest examples of couplets, the term "couplet" also refers to two-line groupings within longer stanzas. This is slightly confusing; while any two consecutive lines of verse may be called a couplet, there are some two-line groupings that are much more conventionally accepted as couplets.

The most accepted way to break a longer stanza into couplets is through meter and rhyme scheme. For that reason, it's helpful to have a strong grasp of what meter and rhyme scheme are in order to understand how to identify couplets. We provide more details about these terms on their own pages, but offer a quick primer here.

Rhyme scheme is the most straightforward way to identify couplets within a longer stanza. Since rhyme schemes are repeating patterns, those patterns naturally suggest ways to break longer stanzas into shorter units. There are two types of couplets that can be defined using couplets: rhymed couplets and unrhymed couplets.

Rhymed couplets are reasonably easy to identify because they are governed by clear rules. The most basic rule is that a rhymed couplet must be two lines in formal verse (poetry with meter and rhyme scheme) that share the same end-rhyme. Within that broad definition, there are even more specific types of rhymed couplets that appear frequently in formal verse. The most common of those are:

Rhymed couplets are also commonly used as a key component of specific types of poems. For example, the type of sonnet known either as an English or Shakespearean sonnet typically ends with a rhymed couplet, even though the lines that precede the couplet have an alternating rhyme scheme.

Take a look at the following sonnet by Shakespeare. As one would expect based on its form (a Shakespearean sonnet), the final lines of the poem together make up a rhyming couplet. Note that this couplet is not distinguished from the rest of the poem by a double line break; it is differentiated solely by the fact that it uses a separate rhyme scheme from the rest of the poem, which is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

Unrhymed couplets are most clearly identified when the two lines of the unrhymed couplet form a single sentence, such as the first two lines of the first stanza of W.B. Yeats's "Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop":

"Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop" is a helpful example, because it is written in formal verse with the rhyme scheme ABCBDB. While the AB, CB, and DB couplets could each be considered an unrhymed couplet, the highlighted couplet most perfectly fits the bill because its two lines form their own sentence, while the CB and DB couplets are both part of the same overall sentence.

One last thing: there is some debate about whether unrhymed couplets can only exist in formal verse, or if they can also exist in blank verse (poetry with meter but no rhyme) or even free verse (poetry lacking rhyme and meter). For example, this is a stanza from "Her Lips Are Copper Wire" by Jean Toomer:

Even though this stanza is two lines long and the lines don't rhyme, the majority of poets would argue that it cannot be properly called an "unrhymed couplet" because the poem is written in free verse. These poets would argue that this stanza should simply be called a "couplet." It's worth knowing that there are some people who would argue, though, that any couplet lacking a rhyme should be called an unrhymed couplet.

In poems with ABAB (or ABCBDB, etc.) rhyme scheme, unrhymed couplets are a natural unit. However, it's important to look carefully at the logic of the poem's overall rhyme scheme when thinking about breaking it into couplets. For example, Percy Bysshe Shelley's famous "Ode to the West Wind" is written with alternating rhymes, but ones that would not be naturally broken into couplets. The first two stanzas have the rhyme scheme ABA BCB, which means that it makes more sense to break them into tercets than into couplets:

c80f0f1006