pentameter
Five-beat verse line
Pentameter is a line of verse containing five metrical feet—units of stressed and unstressed syllables that create rhythm.
In English poetry, iambic pentameter dominates, with its pattern of five unstressed-stressed pairs: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
This meter became the backbone of Shakespeare's plays, Milton's epics, and countless sonnets.
The term applies to the metrical pattern itself or to poetry written in that pattern.
Continuous mark or queue
- verseMetered poetic passage
- fiveFour plus one
- stress patternSyllable emphasis arrangement
- substitutionExchange of one for another
ten syllables · pyrrhic · spondee · elision
Verse rhythm type
- trochaicStressed-unstressed metrical pattern
- dactylicThree-beat poetic meter
- anapesticMeter with galloping rhythm
- spondaicTwo stressed syllables
foot · stress · syllable · scansion · beat · accent · cadence · rhythm
Unrhymed iambic pentameter
- heroic coupletRhymed pentameter pair
- sonnetFourteen-line metered poem
- quatrainFour-line poetic unit
- stanzaPoem's line grouping
Elizabethan dramatist and poet
- MiltonBaroque English verse master
- HomerAncient Greek epic composer
- VirgilClassical epic poet
- DanteItalian epic poet
Marlowe · Chaucer · Wordsworth · Pope · English literature · Renaissance · Elizabethan · classical
line
Continuous mark or queue
- verseMetered poetic passage
- fiveFour plus one
- stress patternSyllable emphasis arrangement
ten syllables · substitution · pyrrhic · spondee · elision
iambic
Verse rhythm type
- trochaicStressed-unstressed metrical pattern
- dactylicThree-beat poetic meter
- anapesticMeter with galloping rhythm
spondaic · foot · stress · syllable · scansion · beat · accent · cadence · rhythm · measure
blank verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter
- heroic coupletRhymed pentameter pair
- sonnetFourteen-line metered poem
- quatrainFour-line poetic unit
Shakespeare
Elizabethan dramatist and poet
Marlowe · Chaucer · Wordsworth · Dante · Pope · English literature · Renaissance · Elizabethan · classical · epic
- poetrypoem, poems, poetry, verse, verses
- versepoem, stanza, couplet, sonnet, rhyme
- poetry termspoetry, rhyme, verse, rhythm, beat
- Classical PoetryHomer, epic poetry, Virgil, Ovid, Horace
- Early English VerseChaucer, Spenser, Milton, Shakespeare, Donne
- metersthermometer, speedometer, odometer, barometer, pedometer
- iambic pentameterUnstressed-stressed pattern, five feet