Not only what Zeffy said, but there's also different types of rhyming poems. For example, the poem you eventually came up with is called a limerick. There's also all of
these, and that's not even all the possible schemes you could have.
Also, keep in mind that different rhyming schemes also have different connotations. The limerick in particular is usually used for comedy. (In fact, scholars tend to say that true limericks are always
obscene.) Using a rhyme scheme that already has connotations (implied meanings) can sometimes cause your reader to look for that kind of meaning in your writing. (It's a lot like attempting to draw a serious picture using a very cartoonish style. It's possible, but you'd either have to play with readers' expectations or be so good that the reader forgets about their expectations altogether.)
Example of all of this: You used a limerick rhyming scheme for a serious poem. As a result, your poem seems lighter than you probably meant it, and after identifying what scheme you were using, I was unconsciously looking for a dirty meaning in it. (The line "nibbling a pear" doesn't really help.)
Beyond that, with rhyming poetry, you'll also want to keep in mind meter. Usually, rhyming poetry is also trying to be symmetrical with each line. That just means lines don't just match by having the last word of one line rhyme with the last word of another. Rather, lines also have patterns all throughout them that keeps them flowing from start to that last, rhyming beat. Keeping the rhythm in mind also heightens the effect of the last syllable: if you maintain a beat, the last one of the line will place an emphasis on the syllable you want to have rhyme.
In order to get this effect, it's actually pretty simple. All you need to do is keep track of the syllables in each line and make sure that you're consistent with how many you use. Add in too many, and the last syllable loses emphasis because the reader feels like it really should have ended a few syllables ago. Add in too few, and the reader feels like they've hit a brick wall because the line ends before they feel like it should. (This is a problem I've seen with a lot of poetry in this forum, so I would like to say that unless you're writing free verse or prose verse,
yes, you need rhythm. Luckily, there's different types of rhythm schemes, too, so it's not as restrictive as you probably think it is. Likewise, usually, readers can be forgiving if you're off by one or two syllables. Just not, you know, going on forever and attempting to rhyme it with a two-word line.)
For an example of the above, here's one of my favorite poems, "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?" by Emily Dickinson:
I'm nobody! Who are you? (7 syllables)
Are you nobody, too? (6 syllables)
Then there's a pair of us - don't tell! (8 syllables)
They'd banish us, you know. (6 syllables)
How dreary to be somebody! (8 syllables)
How public, like a frog (6 syllables)
To tell your name the livelong day (8 syllables)
To an admiring bog! (6 syllables if pronounced with Dickinson's dialect)
Although the above looks like it's got all kinds of syllables, in reality, it's still got a sense of rhythm about it because there are consistently six to eight syllables per line. The last stanza in particular flows with a set beat because every line has the same number of syllables as a line two above it. (Line five has the same number of syllables as line seven, and line six goes with line eight.) It even becomes a smoother scheme if you
don't pronounce "admiring" as a two-syllable word because then, the entire poem has a symmetrical meter (where the first stanza is just a mirror image of the second). But in all, reading this poem aloud can go very smoothly because the beat is clear and consistent.
So, in other words, there really is a lot more to rhyming poetry than just rhyming every line or every other line. You have to take into consideration what form you're using (and what it's usually used
for) as well as the meter. Both can change the message you're trying to convey or how well it's being conveyed.
