Stuck! Is anyone here good at analysing poetry?! Need to know what form this is in for hw

[yellowbananar]

I have no idea about poetry and neither does my dc. We’re stumped on how to work out what the rhyming scheme of this poem is?

Mother doesn't want a dog.
Mother says they smell,
And never sit when you say sit,
Or even when you yell.
And when you come home late at night
And there is ice and snow,
You have to go back out because
The dumb dog has to go.

Mother doesn't want a dog.
Mother says they shed,
And always let the strangers in
And bark at friends instead,
And do disgraceful things on rugs,
And track mud on the floor,
And flop upon your bed at night
And snore their doggy snore.

Mother doesn't want a dog.
She's making a mistake.
Because, more than a dog, I think
She will not want this snake.

Chatgpt says this....

The rhyme scheme of a poem refers to the pattern of rhyming words at the end of its lines, usually identified with letters (e.g., AABB, ABAB). Here's how to determine the rhyme scheme for the poem:

1. Assign a letter (starting with "A") to the end sound of the first line.

1. For each subsequent line, assign the same letter if it rhymes with a previous line or a new letter if it doesn't.

1. Repeat for all lines.

Let's break it down for this poem:

First Stanza:

Mother doesn't want a dog.
Mother says they smell, → A
And never sit when you say sit,
Or even when you yell. → A
And when you come home late at night
And there is ice and snow, → B
You have to go back out because
The dumb dog has to go. → B

Rhyme scheme: ABAB

Second Stanza:

Mother doesn't want a dog.
Mother says they shed, → C
And always let the strangers in
And bark at friends instead, → C
And do disgraceful things on rugs,
And track mud on the floor, → D
And flop upon your bed at night
And snore their doggy snore. → D

Rhyme scheme: CCDD

Third Stanza:

Mother doesn't want a dog.
She's making a mistake. → E
Because, more than a dog, I think
She will not want this snake. → E

Rhyme scheme: EE

Overall Rhyme Scheme:

ABAB CCDD EE

It’s in rhymed quatrains.

The general rule is to assign a letter of the alphabet to each line. So line one would be an a. If any line in the same verse rhymes with it it is also an a. Line 2 would be b if it doesn't rhyme with a . And so on. Start afresh in a new stanza ( verse).

It's not the best poem ever!

It's a four line rhyme isn't it? ABCB?

It's basically rhyming couplets, poorly arranged. Only every other line (the B) has a rhyming partner.

So it's like:
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall

Except in this case, they've split the couplet on the page. It should be:

Mother doesn't want a dog. Mother says they smell,
And never sit when you say sit, Or even when you yell.

Not entirely sure what the point of setting it for HW was tbh.

Quatrains are 4 line stanzas. If it was arranged properly in couplets, it would also be in quatrains.

That’s what I’d say too

ABCBDEFE

Chat GPT is wrong!

Agreed. It has missed the first line!

This is a better laid out version showing line breaks properly

poets.org/poem/mother-doesnt-want-dog

The first bit is abcb

It's not ABAB because the 1st and 3rd of each set of 4 don't rhyme with each other.

It's weird because GPT explains the method correctly but then does it all wrong!

Thanks so much for all the answers and yes I’ve run it through ChatGPT and believe the answer to be wrong!
I thought it was ABCB first verse and then got lost thereafter

The verses are eight lines long , each with two quatrains.

Then a quatrain at the end with punchline.

abcbdefe aghgijki
And so on

Pah. That cheeky AI!