Iambic Pentameter

Short and Sweet

Poetry can be measured?

• Verse is measured in “feet”• Seriously!

• There are several types of feet.(big, small, smelly LOL)

Feet are defined by stressed and unstressed syllables

Iamb • Iambic refers to the type of foot that is used, which is one

unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable and

• pentameter refers to the fact that a line of the verse has five feet. An iambic pentameter has ten

syllables with five pairs of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables.

• Every pair of syllable is called an iambus. The rhythm of the meter is written as:

da Dum

Iambic Pentameter

• A verse that has an iambic pentameter with five iambic meter will have a rhythm pattern as follows:

da Dum da Dum da Dum da Dum da Dum

• “Ode to Autumn” by John Keats.

To swell the gourd, and plump the ha- - zel shellsda Dum da Dum da Dum da Dum da Dum

Variations? Yup.

• To be or not to be that is the ques- -tionda Dum da Dum da Dum da Dum da Dum da

• Has a feminine ending (unstressed syllable)

For our purposes: Iambic Pentameter

• 1. Know that it is a type of measure• 2. Know that it is a type of stressed and

unstressed syllable scheme/pattern• 3. There are usually ten syllables in the line• 4. Used only in verse. Ex: Sonnets, other types

of poetry, and in Shakespeare’s plays when royalty/important people, or the chorus is speaking

EXAMPLES!

“Sonnet XVIII” - William Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?Thou art more lovely and more temperate:Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,And summer's lease hath all too short a date:

“Holy Sonnet XIV” - John Donne

Batter my heart three-personed God, for youas yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend.That I may rise and stand o'erthrow me and bendYour force to break, blow, burn and make me new.

Paradise Lost - John Milton

• Of Man's first disobedience, and the fruitOf that forbidden tree whose mortal tasteBrought death into the World, and all our woe,With loss of Eden, till one greater ManRestore us, and regain the blissful seat,Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret topOf Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspireThat shepherd who first taught the chosen seedIn the beginning how the heavens and earthRose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hillDelight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowedFast by the oracle of God, I thenceInvoke thy aid to my adventurous song,That with no middle flight intends to soar.

Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare

• Two households, both alike in dignity,In fair Verona, where we lay our scene

“The Hind and the Panther” - John Dryden

• A milk-white Hind, immortal and unchang'd,Fed on the lawns, and in the forest rang'd;Without unspotted, innocent within,She fear'd no danger, for she knew no sin.Yet had she oft been chas'd with horns and boundsAnd Scythian shafts; and many winged woundsAim'd at her heart; was often forc'd to fly,And doom'd to death, tho' fated not to die.