1. Shakespearean Sonnets and Iambic Pentameter

2. Accents
All multi-syllable words are made up of accented and unaccented syllables.
behind

3. Accents
be / hind

4. absent

5. tangerine

6. Roulo

7. Shakespeare

8. Try it with your own last name
Try it with your own last name. Look for accented and unaccented syllables, then play with moving the accents around and notice how funny it sounds.

9. Meter
Accented (called “stressed”) and unaccented syllables give language rhythm or “meter.”

10. Every time we talk, we string together accented
and unaccented syllables without even thinking
about it.

11. Poets think about this stuff.
They use the rhythm of language to help convey their message.

12. Mark up these lines from Macbeth
Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff!

13. Mark up these lines from Macbeth
But screw your courage to the sticking place
And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep -

14. So what is IAMBIC PENTAMETER?
Metric foot = a set of two syllables
Iamb = a metric foot with an unaccented syllable followed by an accented syllable
Macbeth
but screw

15. Note the Iambs But screw/your cour/age to/the stick/ing place
And/we’ll/not fail. /When Dun/can is/asleep -

16. Lines built with a series of iambs and follow this pattern are called “iambic.”
They tend to sound like a HEART BEAT.

17. Look back at these lines. How many iambs are in each line?
But screw/your cour/age to/the stick/ing place
And/we’ll/not fail. /When Dun/can is/asleep -

18. FIVE Ancient Greek word for five = pente Think about MATH – penta
THUS…
Iambic Pentameter!

19. Iambic Pentameter Definition
a line of text containing five metric feet (iambs), each foot containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable

20. What’s the big deal?
Iambic pentameter was used to help actors remember lines. Think about how rhythm helps you remember the words of a song.
Also, it is a bit of genius when used in poetry.

21. Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet uses portions of blank verse, which is unrhymed iambic pentameter.
What is especially impressive is when poets use it combined with rhyme, which leads us to….

22. Shakespearean Sonnets

23. Anatomy of a Shakespearean Sonnet
14 lines
written in iambic pentameter – EVERY LINE
USUALLY can be broken down into three quatrains and a couplet
follows rhyme scheme: abab cdcd efef gg
the last couplet (the gg) usually acted as a final thought or the thematic ending of the sonnet

24. Sonnet 18 Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.