The notes were taken by me during my English II Honors class on September 8th, 2022.

Iambic Pentameter is pretty tricky so take it slow, and read carefully. The best thing to remember is there are rules to this, so follow them, and you’ll have an easier time.

Iambic Pentameter

• Shakespeare wrote his plays in blank verse (verse without rhyme), often using iambic pentameter.

• Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter to show educated and noble characters with a high station; servants or low born characters rarely speak in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is often used to highlight especially powerful or important lines. Conversely, noble characters often fall out of iambic pentameter when they are acting ignoble or out of their minds.

• Iambic pentameter is a 10 syllable line, which alternates unstressed and stressed syllables, creating a rhythm like DUM, de DUM, de DUM, de DUM, de DUM.

  • In a line of poetry, an ‘lamb’ is a foot or beat consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

  • ‘Penta’ means 5, so pentameter simply means 5 meters. A line of poetry written in iambic pentameter has 5 feet which is equal to 5 sets of stressed syllables and unstressed syllables.

• Helps give rhythm to the language. Helps, ‘feel the rhythm’ in text.

  • Originally made to help actors remember their lines.

• EXAMPLE:

  • “Thou hast it now-king, Cawdor, Glamis, all” Line 1, Scene 1, Act 3.

• “Thou | hast | it | now- | king, | Caw | dor, | Gla | mis, | all”

  • This line has 10 syllables, and that’s Iambic Pentameter.

    • That’s why Skaespeare may sound funny, because he wrote in Iambic Pentameter.