Can you help me understand what 'iambic pentameter' clearly is?
Thank you for using the Jiskha Homework Help Forum. Here are some explanations for you:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter
2. http://www.answers.com/topic/iambic-pentameter
3. http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC030240/iambic%20_pentameter.htm
Certainly! Iambic pentameter is a rhythmic pattern commonly used in poetry and verse drama. It consists of five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables, resulting in a total of ten syllables per line. The term "iambic" refers to the metrical pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, while "pentameter" indicates that there are five pairs of these iambs per line.
In practice, iambic pentameter often resembles natural speech, with the stresses falling on the same syllables that would naturally be emphasized in the spoken language. It is a versatile and widely used meter, and it is especially associated with the works of William Shakespeare.
I hope this clears up the concept of iambic pentameter for you!
Certainly! Iambic pentameter is a metrical pattern commonly used in poetry and drama. It consists of lines with five metrical feet, where each foot is an iamb. An iamb is a two-syllable unit with the stress on the second syllable. So, in iambic pentameter, there are five iambs per line.
To better understand it, let's break it down. An iamb can be represented as "da-DUM." So, in a line of iambic pentameter, you would have five of these "da-DUM" pairs, resulting in the pattern: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM.
For example, consider the following famous line from Shakespeare's Sonnet 18:
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?"
Now, let's break it down in terms of iambs:
"Shall I / comPARE / thee TO / a SUM / mer's DAY?"
As you can see, each pair of syllables follows the "da-DUM" pattern, making it an iambic pentameter line.
If you would like further information or examples, I can look it up for you!