2. Iambic Pentameter – WHAT IS IT?
What is Iambic Pentameter?
Iamb - A foot (pair of syllables) containing an unstressed syllable
followed by a stressed syllable.
Penta: means five
Iambic Pentameter is a single line of five feet written in iambic
iambic pentameter
A line of poetry that contains five pairs of iambs (10 syllables total).
3. Blank Verse
Unrhymed lines of
poetry written in iambic
pentameter
This is what most of
Julius Caesar is
written in
4. Iambic Pentameter Examples
U / U / U / U / U /
“You blocks, you stones, you worse than sense less things!”
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
~Marullus in Act 1.1.34-37
6. Why Iambic Pentameter?
Iambic Pentameter is the meter that most closely resembles normal
human speech patterns.
But why use meter at all?
You can do things with meter:
The commoners speak in prose
Those in high society speak in iambic
Act 1.1 is an example of this
7. Give it a try
I would not, Cassius, yet I love him well.
But wherefore do you hold me here so long?
What is it that you would impart to me?
If it be aught toward the general good, ...
9. Monologue
LONG speech made by ONE person to another character
(“Friends, Romans, Countrymen…”)
10. Soliloquy
LONG speech made by ONE person to NO ONE else
The audience/reader is only supposed to hear
Speaker’s mental thoughts
11. Aside
SHORT speech/phrase by ONE person to NO ONE else
The audience/reader is only supposed to hear
Something that might be said under one’s breath
12. Character Rank
Those characters who are more important in the play
Those who have large speaking roles
Those who have vital information to give
13. What is Being Emphasized in this
Passage? sound it out…
“Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,
It seems to me most strange that men should fear,
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.”
14. Pretty Cool, huh
See, how can you not
love iambic
pentameter? Doesn’t
it just make you want
to speak in iambic for
the rest of your days?
