Poetry

====Rhyming schemes====
{{Main|Rhyme scheme}}
[[File:Paradiso Canto 31.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Divine Comedy]]'': [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] and [[Beatrice Portinari|Beatrice]] see God as a point of light.]]
In many languages, including Arabic and modern European languages, poets use rhyme in set patterns as a structural element for specific poetic forms, such as [[ballad]]s, [[sonnet]]s and [[couplet|rhyming couplets]]. However, the use of structural rhyme is not universal even within the European tradition. Much modern poetry avoids traditional [[rhyme scheme]]s. Classical Greek and Latin poetry did not use rhyme.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wesling |first=Donald |url=https://archive.org/details/chancesofrhymede0000wesl |title=The chances of rhyme |publisher=University of California Press |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-520-03861-5 |pages=x–xi, 38–42 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Rhyme entered European poetry in the [[High Middle Ages]], due to the influence of the [[Arabic language]] in [[Al Andalus]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Menocal |first=María Rosa |author-link=María Rosa Menocal |title=The Arabic Role in Medieval Literary History |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8122-1324-9 |page=88}}</ref> Arabic language poets used rhyme extensively not only with the development of literary Arabic in the [[6th century in poetry|sixth century]], but also with the much older oral poetry, as in their long, rhyming [[qasida]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Qasida poetry in Islamic Asia and Africa |publisher=Brill |year=1996 |isbn=978-90-04-10387-0 |editor-last=Sperl |editor-first=Stefan |page=49}}</ref> Some rhyming schemes have become associated with a specific language, culture or period, while other rhyming schemes have achieved use across languages, cultures or time periods. Some forms of poetry carry a consistent and well-defined rhyming scheme, such as the [[chant royal]] or the [[Ruba'i|rubaiyat]], while other poetic forms have variable rhyme schemes.<ref>{{Harvnb|Adams|1997|pp=71–104}}</ref>

Most rhyme schemes are described using letters that correspond to sets of rhymes, so if the first, second and fourth lines of a quatrain rhyme with each other and the third line do not rhyme, the quatrain is said to have an AA BA [[rhyme scheme]]. This rhyme scheme is the one used, for example, in the rubaiyat form.<ref>{{Harvnb|Fussell|1965|p=27}}</ref> Similarly, an A BB A quatrain (what is known as "[[enclosed rhyme]]") is used in such forms as the [[Petrarchan sonnet]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Adams|1997|pp=88–91}}</ref> Some types of more complicated rhyming schemes have developed names of their own, separate from the "a-bc" convention, such as the [[ottava rima]] and [[terza rima]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Corn|1997|pp=81–82, 85}}</ref> The types and use of differing rhyming schemes are discussed further in the [[rhyme scheme|main article]].