[Matt Q]

Looking at my son's GCSE English Literature homework with him, I see a rhyme scheme described as ABACA, which I'd have described as AXAXA, because there's no B- or C- rhyme in the poem: the second and fourth lines are unrhymed throughout.

In fact, I'd probably describe it AXAXA, BXBXB ... because with a one-stanza description isn't sufficient to describe how a rhyme scheme progresses across stanzas. Even more so with the ABACA description, since the second stanza could be ABACA or DBDCB or DEDFD and so on.

This way of describing rhyme schemes (i.e., not using X for unrhymed lines) seems to be consistently used across all GCSE learning websites I've checked, so I'm guessing it's the official way to do this at GCSE, but I can't recall ever having seen it anywhere else. So, I'm wondering if anyone else has. All the actual poetry sites I've looked at use X to denote non-rhyming lines. I don't want to tell my son he's being taught wrong if he isn't, but it doesn't seem like a great way to describe a rhyme scheme.

(The poem is Walking Away by Cecil Day-Lewis; GCSEs are exams taken by 16-year-olds in the UK).

[Duncan Gillies MacLaurin]

I'd never heard of using the denomination "X", but it strikes me as a good idea.

Duncan

[Julie Steiner]

I'm a little stunned that using "X" to indicate unrhymed lines is not currently in the Wikipedia articles for Rhyme Scheme and Ballad Stanza.
But the beauty of Wikipedia is that people can edit it. Go to it, Matt!

I found a number of sources online confirming the use of "X" for unrhymed lines, but they are not as authoritative as quoting a recognized, published poetry handbook would be:
https://lyricworkroom.com/songwriter...-rhyme-scheme/
https://poetryarchive.org/glossary/rhyme-scheme/
https://poetscollective.org/poetryforms/

Example:

One four-line stanza in English is ballad measure, a common songwriting measure, which has several variations. (Here x stands for no rhyme). One recognizable from hymns is xaxa xbxb and so on. The x lines are usually four beats long, the a and b lines three. Look at Dickinson.

From http://www.expansivepoetryonline.com...prospart4.html

Sadly, I have loaned out all of my recognized, published poetry handbooks to people who have not returned them, and Google Books seems always to hide precisely the page one needs....

[Martin Elster]

I've seen rhyme schemes depicted in the following ways:

ABACA (Handbook of Poetic Forms, Ron Padgett) His version of the ballad stanza is ABCB.
But he uses small letters: abcb.

BXBYB (Painless Poetry, Mary Elizabeth) Her version of the ballad stanza is XBYB.
But she uses small letters: xbyb.

AXAXA

[Max Goodman]

Maybe the reason for GCSE(whatever that is)'s choice is that AXAXA can be misread. It looks as though lines 2 and 4 rhyme with each other. Of course, the Xs would be Bs if they rhymed, but a reader may not know that. ABACA cannot be misread that way.

It might, by more knowing readers, be misread as suggesting that the B and C lines will be rhymed later in the poem, but it's standard, when only one stanza is patterned, to assume that the pattern starts fresh each time. (If there were only unrhymed line, ABAA say, one might assume it continued BCBB, but with a B and C both to deal with there are two many possible assumptions to make any one assumption viable, it seems to me.)

[E. Shaun Russell]

I would never in a million years use X to denote a non-paired endword in a rhyme scheme, partly for the reason Max mentions, and partly because it's semiotically counterintuitive. We use A, B, C etc. because of their logical sequencing.