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Iambic pentameter (/ aɪ ˌ æ m b ɪ k p ɛ n ˈ t æ m ɪ t ər / eye-AM-bik pen-TAM-it-ər) is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama.The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in each line.
A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry, commonly used in epic and narrative poetry, and consisting of a rhyming pair of lines in iambic pentameter.Use of the heroic couplet was pioneered by Geoffrey Chaucer in the Legend of Good Women and the Canterbury Tales, [1] and generally considered to have been perfected by John Dryden and Alexander Pope in the Restoration Age and ...
For example, if the feet are iambs, and if there are five feet to a line, then it is called an iambic pentameter. [1] If the feet are primarily dactyls and there are six to a line, then it is a dactylic hexameter. [1] In classical Greek and Latin, however, the name "iambic trimeter" refers to a line with six iambic feet.
Furthermore, iambic pentameter (despite its name) may be better described as a series of 10 positions than of 5 feet, especially since the sequence ××// may be interpreted as the swapping of ictic and non-ictic positions across feet, suggesting that if feet constitute any kind of boundary at all, it is a porous one indeed.
In a line of verse that normally employs iambic meter, trochaic substitution describes the replacement of an iamb by a trochee. The following line from John Keats's To Autumn is straightforward iambic pentameter: [2] To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
The heroic couplet is a pair of iambic pentameter lines that rime together. Frequently, the term is associated with the balanced, closed couplets that dominated English verse from roughly 1640 to 1790, [ 22 ] [ 23 ] although the form dates back to Chaucer, and remains in use often in a looser form.
Heroic couplet: written in iambic pentameter. Poulter's measure: couplets in which a 12-syllable iambic line rhymes with a 14-syllable iambic line. [1] Envoi (or envoy): the brief stanza that ends French poetic forms such as the ballade or sestina. Ghazal; Octave: an 8-line stanza or poem.
In some kinds of metre, such as the Greek iambic trimeter, two feet are combined into a larger unit called a metron (pl. metra) or dipody. The foot is a purely metrical unit; there is no inherent relation to a word or phrase as a unit of meaning or syntax , though the interplay between these is an aspect of the poet's skill and artistry.