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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.
An iamb (/ ˈ aɪ æ m / EYE-am) or iambus is a metrical foot used in various types of poetry.Originally the term referred to one of the feet of the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody: a short syllable followed by a long syllable (as in καλή (kalḗ) "beautiful (f.)").
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.
Milton's most notable works, including Paradise Lost, are written in blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter.He was not the first to use blank verse, which had been a mainstay of English drama since the 1561 play Gorboduc.
Lines of poetry made up predominantly of iambs are referred to as iambics or as iambic verse, which is by far the most commonly used metrical verse in English. Its most important form is the 10-syllable iambic pentameter, either rhymed (as in heroic couplets and sonnets) or unrhymed (in blank verse). [35] iambic pentameter idiom idyll imagery ...
Dactylic pentameter; Dactylic hexameter. Golden line; Iambic meter: any meter based on the iamb as its primary rhythmic unit. Alexandrine (iambic hexameter): a 12-syllable iambic line adapted from French heroic verse. Example: the last line of each stanza in “The Convergence of the Twain” by Thomas Hardy. [1] Czech alexandrine; French ...
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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.