The language of shakespeare’s plays Written primarily using blank verse and prose: Blank verse: unrhymed iambic pentameter Prose: written or spoken language in its ordinary form, without metrical structure Iambic Pentameter: a rhyme scheme in which each line consists of ten syllables Syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs or iambic feet An iamb is a metrical unit made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable Meter: the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse

Iambic Pentameter An example of an iamb would be good BYE. A line of iambic pentameter flows like this: da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM This is 10 syllables, with an unstressed and then stressed pattern (grouped into five units) When I / do COUNT / the CLOCK / that TELLS / the TIME (Sonnet 12) Shall I / com PARE / thee TO / a SUM / mer’s DAY? Thou ART/ more LOVE / ly AND / more TEM / per ATE (Sonnet 18)

Sonnet Structure Total of fourteen lines First twelve are divided into three quatrains with four lines each In the three quatrains, the poet establishes a theme or problem and then Resolves it in the final two lines, called the couplet Heroic couplet: Two consecutive lines that rhyme in iambic pentameter

Sonnet pattern Let’s look at the prologue once more for this pattern Rhyme scheme of the quatrains: abab cdcd efef Couplet has the rhyme scheme: gg Let’s look at the prologue once more for this pattern