Directions (96-100): Read the following poem and answer the
given questions.

In all my wand’rings round this world of care,
In all my griefs-and God has giv’n my share
I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown,
Amidst these humble bow’rs to lay me down;
To husband out life’s taper at the close,
And keep the flame from wasting by repose;
I still had hopes, for pride attends us still,
Amidst the swains to show my book learn’d skill,
Around my fire an ev’ning group to draw,
And tell of all I felt, and all I saw.

Identify the rhyme scheme in the poem.

The correct answer is Option 1: aa bb cc dd ee.

To identify the rhyme scheme of a poem, we look at the last word of each line and assign a letter to each new rhyming sound. Lines that rhyme with each other get the same letter.

Let us go through the poem line by line and label each ending word:

Line 1: "In all my wand'rings round this world of care" → a
Line 2: "In all my griefs-and God has giv'n my share" → a (rhymes with care)
Line 3: "I still had hopes, my latest hours to crown" → b
Line 4: "Amidst these humble bow'rs to lay me down" → b (rhymes with crown)
Line 5: "To husband out life's taper at the close" → c
Line 6: "And keep the flame from wasting by repose" → c (rhymes with close)
Line 7: "I still had hopes, for pride attends us still" → d
Line 8: "Amidst the swains to show my book learn'd skill" → d (rhymes with still)
Line 9: "Around my fire an ev'ning group to draw" → e
Line 10: "And tell of all I felt, and all I saw" → e (rhymes with draw)

Mapping this out clearly:

care / share → aa
crown / down → bb
close / repose → cc
still / skill → dd
draw / saw → ee

The poem is written in heroic couplets — pairs of consecutive rhyming lines in iambic pentameter. Every two adjacent lines rhyme with each other, and each pair introduces a completely new rhyme sound. This produces the pattern:

aa bb cc dd ee

This is why Option 1 (aa bb cc dd ee) is the correct rhyme scheme. The other options are incorrect because they suggest alternating or interlaced rhymes (like abcd patterns), which are not present here — every single rhyme in this poem is immediate and paired, with no alternation or cross-rhyming at all.