1. Writing Blank Verse 2 things to remember: - iambic pentameter
- rhyme scheme

2. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Iambic Pentameter
10 syllables per line
five iambs in a row
unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (  / )
 /  /  /  /  /
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

3. Iambic Pentameter My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damask'd, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground:
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.

4. Iambic Pentameter My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.

5. Iambic Pentameter
WRENCHED ACCENT
(  / )
unstressed
stressed

6. (  / )     Iambic Pentameter WRENCHED ACCENT T O D A Y IF I
(  / ) 
T O D A Y 
IF I 
R E F U S E 
S W I M M I N G

7. Iambic Pentameter A WRENCHED ACCENT is...
An alteration in the customary pronunciation of a word, that is, a shift in word accent, to accommodate the metrical accent in a line of verse.
swimMING   SWIMming

8. ly ed er ing es ness tion +all the rest
Iambic Pentameter
WRENCHED ACCENT
In English...
ALL suffixes are UNSTRESSED
ly ed er ing es ness tion +all the rest