As you speak it, juxtapose it with the METRE STRESS For example if you encounter an unstressed word that, in fact, needs stress for meaning, it creates a tension between sound and meaning that adds weight to the word – a weight of meaning and emotion. These are CLUES on how to manage the line. You will notice right away the METRE STRESS does NOT always lie with the SENSE STRESS. The which if you with patient ears attend, (Perfect) Is now the two-hours’ tra f fic of our stage (It SEEMS "hours" should be emphasized too) Which but their children ’ s end, naught could remove- (Perfect - But, what's with the dash? Shakespeare whispering?) The fearful passage of their death-marked love (Perfect)Īnd the continuance of their parents’ rage- (Trying to make 'continuance' two syllables is impossible) This is called an 'elision') ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ / ~ /ĭoth with their death bury their parents’ strife. Whose misadventured piteous overthrows ("piteous is only two syllables instead of three. ( Perfect)įrom forth the fatal loins of these two foes (Perfect)Ī pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, (Perfect) Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. Sense and Iambic match)įrom ancient grudge break to new mutin y, (It SEEMS that "break" should have emphasis) In fair V erona, where we lay our scene, (Perfect Iambic line. T wo households, both alike in dignity ( it SEEMS like "Two" should have emphasis also) Marking all the syllables in a line as stressed or unstressed is called scanning the text (noun: scansion). The unstressed syllables are marked with a ᵕ above the line, while the stressed syllables are marked with a / above the line. Examples of elision include "o'er" (1 syllable instead of 2), "e'en" (1 syllable instead of 2), and "i' th'" (1 syllable instead of 2). Sometimes, Shakespeare uses elision, omitting unstressed syllables and replacing them with an apostrophe to decrease the number of syllables in a word, to make certain words fit the meter. bel ong (pronunciation by Merriam-Webster here)īecause there are 5 iambs in a standard verse line, standard Shakespearean verse lines have 10 syllables.Practice emphasizing the underlined portions. To hear the rhythm of the iamb, try reading these five words aloud. This meter mimics the human heartbeat: ba DUM ba DUM ba DUM ba DUM ba DUM. An iamb is a metrical unit of poetry, or foot, composed of two syllables: the first unstressed, and the second stressed. Iambic pentameter is made up of five (as the prefix "penta-" suggests) iambs. The rhythm of many of Shakespeare's lines is in a verse form called iambic pentameter. This post includes extensive examples, with links to standard pronunciation provided at least once for every new type of foot. Note: Many italicized words in this post are linked to the Poetry Foundation's definition of those terms, as a more extensive glossary. The verse holds many clues to the meaning and emotion behind Shakespeare's lines, so it's important to understand and unpack the verse, in all of its complexity. This style of writing, with the words following a metrical rhythm, is called verse. Shakespeare wrote his plays mostly in blank verse, using iambic pentameter without rhyme. Shakespeare himself was a poet, and a playwright––which means that many of the lines in his plays are poems themselves.
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