Iambic pentameter: Difference between revisions

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'''Iambic pentameter''' is a line of [[poetic meter]], made up of five iambic [[metric feet|feet]]. In classical poetry an iambic foot is a short syllable follwed by a longer syllable, but in English poetry it is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word ''again''. An example of a line in iambic pentameter would therefore be "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day", where the accent falls on the syllables ''I'', ''-pare'', ''to'', ''sum-'' and ''day''.
'''Iambic pentameter''' is a line of [[poetic meter]], made up of five iambic [[metric feet|feet]]. In classical poetry an iambic foot is a short syllable follwed by a longer syllable, but in English poetry it is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word ''again''. An example of a line in iambic pentameter would therefore be "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day", where the accent falls on the syllables ''I'', ''-pare'', ''to'', ''sum-'' and ''day''.


The most famous usage of iambic pentameter is in the [[sonnet]].
The most famous usage of iambic pentameter is in the [[sonnet]] and in the [[Elizabethan]] [[verse plays]] of [[Marlowe]] and [[Shakespeare]].


[[category:poetry]]
[[category:poetry]]

Revision as of 03:19, 6 October 2006

Iambic pentameter is a line of poetic meter, made up of five iambic feet. In classical poetry an iambic foot is a short syllable follwed by a longer syllable, but in English poetry it is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, as in the word again. An example of a line in iambic pentameter would therefore be "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day", where the accent falls on the syllables I, -pare, to, sum- and day.

The most famous usage of iambic pentameter is in the sonnet and in the Elizabethan verse plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare.