An AABB rhyme scheme pairs neighboring lines: the first two share one end sound, and the next two share another. Each pair is a rhyming couplet. This article explains the letters, compares AABB with ABAB, and examines poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, William Blake and W. H. Auden before offering a writing exercise.
Two poems offer practice identifying AABB:
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s "The Arrow and the Song," opening stanza (AABB):
> I shot an arrow into the air,
> It fell to earth, I knew not where;
> For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
> Could not follow it in its flight. - A. E. Housman’s "To an Athlete Dying Young," opening stanza (AABB):
> The time you won your town the race
> We chaired you through the market-place;
> Man and boy stood cheering by,
> And home we brought you shoulder-high.
Read those stanzas aloud, then compare where their sentences end with where their rhyme pairs end.
In This Article
- How the Letters Work
- AABB Compared With ABAB
- "My Shadow": Pairs for a Child's Voice
- "A Poison Tree": Pairs That Split
- "Funeral Blues": Pairs That Shut the Door
- Writing an AABB Stanza
- Key Takeaways
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Read the Endings, Then the Effect
How the Letters Work
Give the first end sound A. Every matching sound also gets A; the next new sound gets B. Sound matters, not spelling. Here, labels restart for each stanza. Continuous labeling instead carries letters across stanza breaks, assigning a new letter to each new rhyme sound. Blake opens "A Poison Tree":
I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
"Friend" and "end" form A; "foe" and "grow" form B despite their different spellings. Read endings aloud to hear the pattern.
AABB Compared With ABAB
In ABAB, line 1 rhymes with line 3, while line 2 rhymes with line 4. That gap keeps two sounds open at once.
AABB resolves each rhyme before introducing another. Its two halves can hold separate thoughts, making the pattern useful for clear contrasts as well as memorable verse.
"My Shadow": Pairs for a Child's Voice
Stevenson's "My Shadow" appeared in A Child's Garden of Verses in 1885:
I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me,
And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.
He is very, very like me from the heels up to the head;
And I see him jump before me, when I jump into my bed.
The endings "me," "see," "head," "bed" give AABB. The first couplet states a puzzle: what is a shadow for? The second observes its behavior. Those complete steps suit the child's voice.
"A Poison Tree": Pairs That Split
Blake's poem appeared in Songs of Experience (1794). In the opening quoted above, "friend" and "end" connect spoken anger with its resolution. "Foe" and "grow" connect silence with anger's growth.
The parallel phrasing makes the different outcomes stark. Later, "smiles" rhymes with "wiles," joining an outward expression to deception. The pairs become traps: words sound comfortably matched while their meanings expose revenge.
"Funeral Blues": Pairs That Shut the Door
Auden's "Funeral Blues" opens with "telephone," "bone," "drum," "come": AABB. The first couplet silences household activity; the next turns toward the funeral.
The final stanza ends "one," "sun," "wood," "good": AABB within that stanza, or GGHH in the poem’s continuous scheme, AABB CCDD EEFF GGHH. Its last couplet declares that nothing "can ever come to any good." The immediate rhyme gives that verdict a firm stopping point. Where Blake's pairs separate alternatives, Auden's close them down.
Writing an AABB Stanza
Choose two rhyme pairs: "door"/"floor" and "rain"/"pane." Build lines toward those endings:
I came home late and shut the door;
My boots left puddles on the floor.
Outside there fell a lot of rain,
And I was sad beside the pane.
The pattern works; the language does not. The third line twists ordinary word order, and the fourth exists only for its rhyme. Revise:
The gutters choked on April rain.
I watched it streak the windowpane.
The revision gives each line something to say. Read your draft aloud: if a rhyme forces nonsense, replace it. "Storm" and "warm" could replace the second pair without changing the AABB rhyme scheme.
Key Takeaways
- AABB groups four lines into two rhyming couplets: lines 1–2 rhyme, then lines 3–4.
- Label sounds, not spellings; no particular meter or syllable count is required.
- Unlike ABAB, AABB resolves each rhyme before introducing the next.
- Ask what each pair accomplishes: Stevenson groups observations, Blake divides outcomes, and Auden closes an argument.
- Read drafts aloud and replace rhymes that force nonsense.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a rhyme scheme?
It is a letter-based record of matching line-ending sounds. Each new sound receives the next letter; repeated sounds keep their original label.
Is AABB or ABAB better?
Neither. Choose AABB for quick resolution or ABAB when you want a rhyme to wait across an intervening line. The better choice depends on the movement you want.
Can AABB continue as AABBCC in a longer stanza?
Yes. A third couplet with a new sound receives CC. Continuous rhyming couplets appear in John Donne's elegies, including the one often printed as "Elegy V."
Does AABB require a particular meter or syllable count?
No. Rhyme scheme describes endings, not rhythm or line length. Stevenson's long lines and Blake's shorter ones demonstrate that freedom.
Does each rhyming pair have to end a sentence?
No. A sentence can continue into the next couplet, softening the sense of a stop. Ending a sentence with the pair, as Blake does in his opening stanza, strengthens closure.
Read the Endings, Then the Effect
Mark four consecutive endings before assigning a pattern to a passage. Then examine the sentences: do they stop with the couplets or cross their boundaries? Auden's final "good" matters because it ends both the rhyme and the argument. That relationship between sound and thought tells you more than the letters alone.