Explanation of Iambic Pentameter

Post date: Jan 16, 2015 4:11:43 PM

iambic pentameter

in English verse meter, ten-syllable lines with alternating unstressed and stressed syllables, the most common poetic meter in English and a particular favorite of Elizabethan playwrights such as shakespeare : "To sleep: | perchance | to dream: | ay, there's | the rub" ( hamlet ).

It is as simple as a heartbeat

A heartbeat has a hard sound and a soft sound to make two beats

Hard sound = stressed syllable = male = /

Soft sound = unstressed syllable = female = u

Meter- a way of measurement

iamb- Is a unit of measurement in poetry that consists of one stressed syllable and one unstressed syllable / U

uni=one

bi=two

tri=three

quad= four

penta=five (pentagon)

A line of Shakespeare there are FIVE sets of iambs /U /U /U /U /U

/ U / U / U / U / U

"To sleep: | per-chance | to dream: | ay, there's | the rub" ( hamlet ).