Name:A/BDue:

Iambic Pentameter

Directions: Read the following rules about Iambic Pentameter.

  • Iambic pentameter is a rhyme scheme in which each line consists of ten syllables.
  • The syllables are divided into five pairs called iambs or iambic feet.
  • An iamb is a unit of meter made up of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable.
  • An example of an iamb would be good BYE.
  • A line of iambic pentameter flows like this:
  • baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM / baBOOM.
  • Example: When I / do COUNT / the CLOCK / that TELLS / the TIME (Sonnet 12)
  • Its beat is said to mirror our heartbeat as well as our natural cadence in speaking.

Practice Activity 1:Rewrite the following iambic pentameterlines marking a slash between each metric foot and writing stressed syllables in capital letters. The first one is done for you.

  1. When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes

I all alone beweep my outcast state (Sonnet 29)

When IN / dis GRACE / with FOR / tune AND / men’s EYES
I ALL / a LONE / be WEEP / my OUT/ cast STATE (Sonnet 29)

  1. Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate. (Sonnet 18)

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  1. Two households, both alike in dignity,
    In fair Verona, where we lay our scene (R&J Prologue lines1-2)

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Practice Activity 2: Write your own originaliambic pentameter two lines. Be sure to mark a slash between each metric foot and write stressed syllables in capital letters.

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Practice Activity 3 – Annotation Challenge: Carefully read the R&J sonnet, below. Annotate it with your observations. Use your knowledge of literary devices and poetry terms.Define unknown words. Number the lines.Is it consistently in iambic pentameter? Themes? Literary devices in action (tone, imagery, metaphor, alliteration…)? Other? Write a paraphrase (restate in your own words) of every two lines in the right margin. This page should look like a crazy mess of thoughts!

R&J Prologue
Two households, both alike in dignity,A
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,B
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,A
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.B
From forth the fatal loins of these two foesC
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;D
Whose misadventured piteous overthrowsC
Doth with their death bury their parents' strife.D
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,E
And the continuance of their parents' rage,F
Which, but their children's end, naught could remove,E
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;F
The which if you with patient ears attend,G
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.G