Quatrain Prosody -- Part 3

In Part 1 of this series I noted that the traditional rhyme scheme for the Chinese Quatrain is A-B-C-B. Here is an example of this kind of traditional rhyme scheme:

Armstrong Woods

Where the footpath ends
A creek quickly flows
Over logs and rocks
Giant redwoods grow

The effect of this kind of rhyme scheme is to give a strong sense of closure to the quatrain. In the traditional rhyme scheme the first end-rhyme that is heard is the last syllable of the quatrain. This is like a sonic cadence and I think it is one of the reasons why this kind of rhyme scheme has proven so successful in the Chinese Quatrain. I have found that it transmits well to an English language context.

Even though I felt a sense of satisfaction with the traditional rhyme scheme I set out to explore other possible rhyme schemes, to see how they would affect the sense of the Quatrain. Here is an example of A-A-A-A:

Homage to Heraclitus

The river flows to the sea
Events become history
The swirl of the galaxies
Time’s flow is eternity

I haven’t used this rhyme scheme very often, but I felt that in this case it fit the subject matter, which is the Heraclitean view of the ever-flowing, river-like, nature of existence. In this type of rhyme scheme there is not felt the sense of cadence and closure that the traditional rhyme scheme provides. My sense is that the A-A-A-A rhyme scheme feels like it could continue this way, almost like the Quatrain is just a portion of a much larger sequence, whereas the traditional rhyme scheme gives me a self-contained feeling. For certain subject matters, though, this kind of rhyme scheme may be efficacious.

Another rhyme scheme, one that I have used often, is A-B-A-B. Here is an example:

An Old Man’s Morning

February cold –
Back ache and joint pains
I am feeling old
Not much time remains

I like the effect of this rhyme scheme; it feels very “round” to me, very balanced. The weave of the lines is sonically tighter than with the classic rhyme scheme of A-B-C-B. It also has a sense of closure and cadence that is almost, though not quite, as strong as the classic rhyme scheme.

I have tried other rhyme schemes rarely. A few times I have used A-B-C-A. Here is an example:

On George Fox

I will walk the path of peace
Though the world chooses war,
Strife and hatred and deceit;
War within my heart has ceased.

In addition to lines 1 and 4 rhyming, line 3 is a slant rhyme to both 1 and 4. It’s also unusual in that line 3 is a run-on from line 2. Here’s another example of A-B-C-A:

Grace

I am very small
Which means I’m not God,
But through His kind grace
I can glimpse the all.

Here only lines 1 and 4 rhyme.

My sense is that there is not as strong a feeling of cadence and closure in this rhyme scheme. That surprised me. I had thought that it would more closely resemble the traditional rhyme scheme of A-B-C-B, but it really feels different to me.

Another Quatrain rhyme scheme appears in traditional English nursery rhymes, for example:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.

Here the rhyme scheme is A-A-B-B. I haven’t used this rhyme scheme myself, even though I’ve become interested in it because it appears naturally in English poetry of seven syllable lines (for line 4 I read “diamond” as “dymond”). My feeling is that this rhyme scheme feels more like a series of couplets, that is to say it sounds like two two-line verses, rather than a organic Quatrain of four integrated, woven together, lines. On the other hand, this kind of rhyme scheme probably has potential in English since it is already clearly established; it shouldn’t be put aside and some subject matter might be agreeable to such a structure. I am thinking of, for example, a Quatrain which opens with a question in the first two lines, and then the last two lines either offer an answer, or a comment on the question. In this kind of Quatrain there is a natural division into two sections and a rhyme scheme of A-A-B-B would support that division.

The result of all these explorations in rhyme is a renewed sense of the efficacy of the traditional rhyme scheme of A-B-C-B. It is this rhyme scheme which provides the strongest sense of completion, the strongest sense that the Quatrain stands as an organic whole. Still, I do find the other rhyme schemes to be efficacious at times, they each have their own expressive tone or quality and certain topics seem to merge well with these other rhyme schemes.

There is a common factor to all of the rhyme schemes: That is that line 4 always rhymes with some other line. Without that closing end-rhyme, the Quatrain loses its integrity, its sense of completeness and unity.

No doubt as I continue to compose these Quatrains more insights into how rhyme works in these brief poems will become clear.