This article examines the characteristic features of A.P. Sumarokov’s rhyme. Although scholars’ interest in the poet’s literary legacy is evident, the metrical features of his works – particularly his rhymes – haven’t been thoroughly studied yet. The author of the article draws on M.L. Gasparov’s work “The Versification of Sumarokov’s Odes”, which provides precise data on the versification of selected solemn odes, and, using a number of examples, demonstrates that the scholar’s conclusions can be applied to a wider range of the poet’s works. In rather diverse texts such as adaptations of the Psalter, odes of various types, epistles, “parables” (i. e. fables), satires, eclogues, idylls, “songs and choruses”, elegies, stanzas, sonnets, epigrams, epitaphs, madrigals, riddles and other “short poems”, Sumarokov employed phonetically and graphically precise rhyme, predominantly simple; his rhyme was mostly verbal, though nominal employs as well. However the poet left no treatise in which he systematically set out his views on what rhyme ought to be: the brief remarks in the article “On Versification” are fragmentary and largely stem from his polemic with Lomonosov, rather than from a desire to create a systematic compendium of those Russian verse rules which Sumarokov considered correct.