Question

read the excerpt from \sonnet 29.\ when, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, i all alone beweep my outcast state, and trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, and look upon myself, and curse my fate, what is the rhyme scheme of these lines? options: abab, abba, abcb, abac

Explanation:

To determine the rhyme scheme, we analyze the end - words of each line:

• The end - word of line 1 is "eyes", and we assign it the letter "a".
• The end - word of line 2 is "state", which rhymes with no other line so far, so we assign it "b".
• The end - word of line 3 is "cries", which rhymes with "eyes" (line 1), so it gets "a".
• The end - word of line 4 is "fate", which rhymes with "state" (line 2), so it gets "b".

So the rhyme scheme is abab.

Answer:

abab (the option corresponding to "abab")