Shakespear Terminology

Blank verse

Verse that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Shakespeare wrote most of his plays in blank verse, and this 10-syllable line is the standard for many English writers

Couplet

Two lines of verse, usually in the same meter and joined by rhyme.

Epic poem

serious peom taht tells a story about an heroic figuere (also narrative poem)

ex → Venus and adonus

Feet

It determines which syllables in a row are stressed. For example, the iamb (da-DUM) and the trochee (DA-dum)

Iambic pentameter

A rhythmic pattern that consists of ten syllables per line, with alternating stressed and unstressed syllables. The next pattern emerges: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM.

Meter

The overall rhythmic structure of a poem, created by the number of syllables in a line and the arrangement in which they’re stressed

Narrative poem

The oldest form of poetry and literature, used to tell a story. The poet combines elements of storytelling, such as plot, setting and characters, combined with elements of meter, rhyme and literary devices. For example, a ballad or an epic poem.

Octave

A stanza consisting of eight lines.

Prose

what stops the ryme, mostly at the end of a stanza

Quatrain

A stanza consisting of four lines

Rhyme royal

iambiac pendameter, ABABB CC petronician

Sestet

A stanza consisting of six lines.

Sonnet

a 14 lines petrachian and shakespears/ lyrical or musical from peotry

Stanza

strofe

Venus and Adonis stanza

A stanza consisting of six lines, and the rhyme scheme is ABABCC.

Verse

A term that refers to various parts of poetry, such as a single line of poetry, a stanza, or the entire poem.

Volta

the Italian word for “turn,” is a rhetorical shift that marks the change of a thought or argument in a sonnet.