Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
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
A line of iambic pentameter comprises five consecutive iambs. Iambic trimeter is the metre of the spoken verses in Greek tragedy and comedy, comprising six iambs—as one iambic metrum consisted of two iambs. In English accentual-syllabic verse, iambic trimeter is a line comprising three iambs.
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.
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.
Resolution in the iambic pentameter is rare, but it does sometimes occur. When resolution occurs in a weak position in the line, there are two light unstressed syllables between the stressed ones, often within a polysyllabic word, as in the following examples from Shakespeare: [11] This fórtificátion, géntlemen, sháll we sée it? (Othello 3 ...
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
Blank verse is poetry written with regular metrical but unrhymed lines, usually in iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century", [1] and Paul Fussell has estimated that "about three quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse". [2]