Shakespeare iambic pentameter why

Viewed 9k times. Shakespeare is incredibly famous for writing a lot in iambic pentameter. Improve this question. Gary 3 3 bronze badges. SleepingGod SleepingGod 2 2 gold badges 5 5 silver badges 11 11 bronze badges.

What do you mean, why? Are you expecting an answer from Shakespeare explaining his choice, or a question more like 'how are the plays improved by being in iambic parameter' which would probably go over better here? Mithrandir I was more thinking historically, was iambic pentameter simply plucked out of the air? Or was there some reason why he picked that specific meter? Who were the "many poets" who were writing plays in a "completely different meter"?

Or do you just mean that they were writing lyrics in different meters? So did Shakespeare, when he incorporated lyrics into his plays, e. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Joshua Engel Joshua Engel 4, 1 1 gold badge 16 16 silver badges 31 31 bronze badges. Your answer is great and pretty comprehensive, although I would add that verse was also associated with characters of higher status or nobility, whereas prose was seen as the form of commoners.

Verse therefore demonstrated the allegiance and status of a character as the prosaic, working class antagonist Iago who is contrasted with the iambic heroes of Othello, Cassio and Desdemona demonstrates in Othello. Be careful that you pronounce the words as the writer intended. In the case of Shakespeare, that might mean speaking differently than we do today — or even just from country to country or region to region. Sometimes, a silent letter needs to be pronounced to make the meter work correctly or two syllables might need to be combined into one: Think of o'er instead of over.

Shakespeare is probably the most famous writer of iambic pentameter. He used it for all of his sonnets. Duffell , honorary fellow of Queen Mary, University of London, with inventing it. But it was English playwright and poet Christopher Marlowe who first brought iambic pentameter to the stage, according to Voss. Thanks to Marlowe, iambic pentameter became the go-to rhythm for both tragedy and comedy, and Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists are known for it.

Likewise, Shakespeare chose to have characters speak in iambic pentameter, but not all of his characters did. Remember that iambic pentameter is more formal. So, when Shakespeare wanted to show a less educated character or give the impression of total buffoonery, he included limericks and prose as dialogue. One well-known example of iambic pentameter comes from Shakespeare's " Sonnet 18 ":.

There are many examples from that era. But you do not need to return to the 16th or 17th centuries to find examples of iambic pentameter. Despite its sweeping popularity during the 16th and 17th centuries and continuation among some poets, most writers don't use iambic pentameter today.

The majority of fiction today is written in prose, not poetry, Voss says. Today, even poets may write poetry in prose. But if you are called upon to write a poem in iambic pentameter, use the formula of five iambs per line.

You can ensure you stick with the meter by drawing five lines on your paper. Include one iamb on each line. This may mean one word per line, two words per line or words that are broken up on the lines. You may need to revise the way you state something to get the rhythm to work. First, he didn't actually write in rigid iambic pentameter. The sonnets, mostly yes, but that is a more rigid form. Though even there, he sometimes strayed. One of them has 15 lines, for instance.

We don't have any of the plays in Shakespeare's own hand, but the earliest published versions, the First Folio, often show not only unusual versions of some speeches--compare the First Folio "Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo" speech with most other editions, for instance--but also surprising line breaks. Based on those, he didn't always finish lines with five feet, even if we take into account lines that are finished by other characters.

Modern editors have taken it upon themselves to "correct" the text. I don't mean to say they're just making stuff up--there's often good reason to suspect the authenticity of the Folios, since they were published 7 years after Shakespeare died, and were often based on prompt-scripts or actors' memories of the lines--but it is possible that the editors created a consistency of meter that Shakespeare himself didn't intend.

Second, individual lines or feet also clearly stray, with or without editorial involvement. King Lear's "Never never never never never," is, for instance, a perfect trochaic pentameter line.

In "Macbeth," for example, Shakespeare employed unrhymed iambic pentameter also known as blank verse for noble characters. Understanding and identifying iambic pentameter is key to appreciating Shakespeare's plays, so let's take a look. In regards to how the Bard used this type of meter, there are only five key things to know:. Iambic pentameter was born out of a need to create a meter for the English language in the 16th century. At that point, Latin was seen as superior and "the language of true literature," while English was for common folk.

Poets developed iambic pentameter as a way of enhancing English to make it worthy of literature and poetry as well. Whether rhymed or in blank verse, the pattern's effect allows poetry to be full of movement, imagery, and a musical quality. In contemporary poetry, iambic pentameter is considered somewhat of a lost art; however, some use the pattern or similar meters as a technique to bring their work to life.

From " Romeo and Juliet :". From "Julius Caesar:". From "A Midsummer Night's Dream:". From "Richard III:". From "Macbeth:".