iambic pentameter
Ten-beat poetic line
Iambic pentameter is a metrical pattern in poetry consisting of ten syllables per line, alternating between unstressed and stressed beats: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM.
It's the dominant rhythm of English verse—Shakespeare's plays and sonnets, Milton's epics, much of Chaucer.
The pattern mimics natural English speech rhythms while imposing formal structure: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Fourteen-line metered poem
- coupletTwo successive verse lines
- quatrainFour-line poetic unit
- blank verseUnrhymed iambic pentameter
- heroic coupletRhymed pentameter pair
octave · sestet · tercet · Petrarchan · Shakespearean · Spenserian · English sonnet · Italian sonnet
Fourteen-line metered poem
- soliloquyDramatic speech to oneself
- HamletDanish prince's revenge tragedy
- MacbethAmbitious thane's downfall
- Romeo and JulietTragedy of rival households
Othello · King Lear · The Tempest · Twelfth Night · Globe Theatre · Elizabethan · blank verse · Julius Caesar
Leg's lowest part
- syllableUnit of pronunciation
- stressPressure, mental or vocal
- unstressRemove vocal emphasis
- scansionAnalyzing verse rhythm patterns
metrical · prosody · spondee · pyrrhic · regular · substitution
sonnet
Fourteen-line metered poem
- coupletTwo successive verse lines
- quatrainFour-line poetic unit
- blank verseUnrhymed iambic pentameter
heroic couplet · octave · sestet · tercet · Petrarchan · Shakespearean · Spenserian · English sonnet · Italian sonnet · volta
sonnet
Fourteen-line metered poem
- soliloquyDramatic speech to oneself
- HamletDanish prince's revenge tragedy
- MacbethAmbitious thane's downfall
Romeo and Juliet · Othello · King Lear · The Tempest · Twelfth Night · Globe Theatre · Elizabethan · blank verse · Julius Caesar · A Midsummer Night's Dream
foot
Leg's lowest part
scansion · metrical · prosody · spondee · pyrrhic · regular · substitution
beat
Rhythmic pulse or strike
tempo · lilt · swing · pace · measure · pattern · regularity · heartbeat · musicality · accentuation
Milton
Baroque English verse master
Chaucer · Marlowe · Wordsworth · Sidney · Surrey · Wyatt · Byron · Shelley · Tennyson · Frost
- English LiteratureShakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen, Bronte, Chaucer
- poetrypoem, poems, poetry, verse, verses
- ShakespeareRomeo, Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello
- versepoem, stanza, couplet, sonnet, rhyme
- literary termsmetaphor, character analysis, symbolism, prologue, epilogue
- poetry termspoetry, rhyme, verse, rhythm, meter
iambic pentameterfree verse
Poetry without fixed structure
prose · prose poetry · sprung rhythm · stream of consciousness · found poetry
iambic, pentameter, iamb, hexameter, tetrameter, trimeter, pentameters