Shakespearean Sonnets and Iambic Pentameter

Accents

All multi-syllable words are made up of accented and unaccented syllables.

behind

Accents

be / hind

absent

tangerine

Roulo

Shakespeare

Try it with your own last name. Look for accented and unaccented syllables, then play with moving the accents around and notice how funny it sounds.

Meter

Accented (called “stressed”) and unaccented syllables give language rhythm or “meter.”

Every time we talk, we string together accented

and unaccented syllables without even thinking

about it.

Poets think about this stuff.

They use the rhythm of language to help convey their message.

Mark up these lines from Macbeth

Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff!

Mark up these lines from MacbethBut screw your courage to the sticking place

And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep -

So what is IAMBIC PENTAMETER?Metric foot = a set of two syllables

Iamb = a metric foot with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable

Macbeth

but screw

Note the Iambs

But screw/your cour/age to/the stick/ing place

And/we’ll/not fail. /When Dun/can is/asleep -

Lines built with a series of iambs and follow this pattern are called “iambic.”

They tend to sound like a HEART BEAT.

Look back at these lines. How many iambs are in each line?

But screw/your cour/age to/the stick/ing place

And/we’ll/not fail. /When Dun/can is/asleep -

FIVE

Ancient Greek word for five = pente

Think about MATH – penta

THUS…

Iambic Pentameter!

Iambic Pentameter Definition

a line of text containing five metric feet (iambs), each foot containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

What’s the big deal?

Iambic pentameter was used to help actors remember lines. Think about how rhythm helps you remember the words of a song.

Also, it is a bit of genius when used in poetry.

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet uses portions of blank verse, which is unrhymed iambic pentameter.

What is especially impressive is when poets use it combined with rhyme, which leads us to….

Shakespearean Sonnets

Anatomy of a Shakespearean Sonnet 14 lines written in iambic pentameter – EVERY LINE USUALLY can be broken down into three

quatrains and a couplet follows rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg the last couplet (the gg) usually acted as a

final thought or the thematic ending of the sonnet

Sonnet 18Shall 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;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,And often is his gold complexion dimmed;And every fair from fair sometime declines,By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.