
That I may rise and stand o’erthrow me and bendĮvery other word in these two lines of poetry is stressed.

“As yet but knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend. Here are examples of iambic pentameter in use: Aside from using it to make a statement or for characterization, as Shakespeare does, poets may get tired of using the same rhythm. Poets may use iambic pentameter for one line and not use it for the next. It is important to note that a piece of poetry or work that uses iambic pentameter does not have to use iambic pentameter the entire way through the piece. During earlier and medieval periods, Chaucer also used iambic pentameter in his Canterbury Tales. Poets like John Donne used iambic pentameter in their poetry.

Iambic pentameter was heavily used during the Renaissance in England. In Shakespeare’s work, upper-class characters speak in iambic pentameter and are juxtaposed by the lower class language. Often, iambic pentameter can give indications of class differences in renaissance plays and works. Shakespeare is renowned for his use of iambic pentameter. The iamb is the most common metrical foot used in English poetry. Therefore pentameter is a line of poetry consisting of five metrical feet, or five sets of unstressed and stressed syllables. To look at the second half of the term “Iambic Pentameter,” let’s look at what meter does. Think of the rhythm like your heart beating is a good way to visualize and feel the unstressed-stressed.

Therefore, iambic means unstressed/stressed, in that order. The word “describe” is an iamb because we do not stress the “de” in the word, but we emphasize the “scribe” following it. Think of this as parts of the words you emphasize and those you do not.Ī foot of poetry is referred to as an iamb if it has one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Words have stressed and distressed syllables, depending on how we write and say them. When we read poetry, a group of two or three syllables is called a poetic foot. To understand what this means, let’s break down what happens in a string of poetry. Iambic Pentameter describes the construction of a line of poetry with five sets of unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables.

Download the Iambic Pentameter Examples and Worksheets.
