The aesthetics of rhyme schemes

Abstract

The relationship between rhyme and aesthetic appeal has been extensively explored, showing that rhyme is generally perceived as more beautiful than non-rhyme in many cultures. However, previous research has focused on rhyme as a general feature, without considering whether differences in rhyme schemes produce differences in aesthetic appeal. Therefore, to investigate which rhyme schemes are more aesthetically pleasing, I compared the aesthetic appeal of coupled rhyme, alternate rhyme, and no-rhyme, with the prediction that coupled and alternate rhymes would be perceived as more appealing than no-rhyme. In this study, 28 participants first listened to 15 audio stimuli in an artificial mini-language, including five separate stanzas for each of the three rhyme patterns. The participants were then asked to rate how beautiful they found each stimulus on a Likert scale from 1 to 6. Contrary to my predictions, the findings revealed no significant difference in aesthetic appeal between the different rhyme schemes. Nonetheless, this study serves as a pilot study for follow-up research that could build on the limitations of the current study to further explore the topic of the aesthetics of rhyme schemes.