1. The Poetry of Shakespeare’s Language Important Terms to Know

2. iamb: In poetry, an iamb is a metrical foot (unit) consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

3. iamb Another way to define an iamb: Ta-TUM

4. iambic pentameter: A common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents, each foot containing an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable.

5. Iambic pentameter

7. blank verse: Unrhymed verse, especially the unrhrymed iambic pentameter most frequently used in English dramatic and epic verse

8. Example of blank verse: Hark! What light in yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. Add the stress marks to show the rhythm of this iambic pentameter.

9. Rhymed couplet: Two successive lines of verse of which the final words rhyme with each other. Each line of verse has 10 syllables.

10. Example of a rhymed couplet: Romeo says of Juliet: Did my heart love till now? Foreswear it, sight. For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night.

11. Oxymoron: A figure of speech that combines opposite or contradictory ideas or terms. An oxymoron consists of very few words, but when these contradictory terms are put together, a kind of truth is revealed.

12. Examples of oxymorons: Sweet sorrow Wise fool Honest thief

13. personification: Using human qualities and attributes to describe an animal or object.

14. Example of personification: “Arise fair sun, and kill the envious moon.”