Iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter is a metrical line commonly used in poetry and dramatic verse, consisting of five iambic feet, where an iamb is defined as an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The rhythm typically resembles "ta DUM-ta DUM-ta DUM-ta DUM-ta DUM." This form originated from ancient Greek poetry but was adapted for English verse, notably by poets in the Middle Ages, such as Geoffrey Chaucer, who incorporated it into his work, The Canterbury Tales. Iambic pentameter gained prominence during the Renaissance, largely through the works of William Shakespeare, who utilized it extensively in his sonnets and plays, sometimes adding an extra unstressed syllable to create a "feminine ending." While the form saw a decline in popularity with the rise of modernist poetry in the twentieth century, it has not disappeared entirely and continues to be employed by contemporary poets. The versatility of iambic pentameter has influenced various forms of poetic expression, reflecting both the evolution of English poetry and the blending of different literary traditions.
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Iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter is a line of poetry or dramatic verse that consists of five iambic feet (units of rhythm). An iamb is a type of metrical foot that contains one unstressed syllable and one stressed syllable. The rhythm of a line of iambic pentameter usually sounds like the following: “ta DUM-ta DUM-ta DUM-ta DUM-ta DUM.” The word “iamb” derives from the Greek word iambos, which came to mean “metrical foot.” “Pentameter” comes from the Greek word pentametros, or “a measurement of five.” Iambic rhythms are used widely in English poetry, and some people argue that iambic rhythms are natural to English speech.William Shakespeare famously employed iambic pentameter in his sonnets and plays.
Overview
The iambic foot was originally developed as a metrical unit in ancient Greek poetry. Because Greek metrical poetry is durational, or organized by the length of vowel sounds, the iambic foot consisted of one short syllable followed by one long syllable. Poems composed in iambs were often sung and accompanied by dance to honor the god Dionysus.
In the Middle Ages, English writer Geoffrey Chaucer experimented with iambic pentameter in his epic work The Canterbury Tales (written 1387–1400). Writing in Middle English, Chaucer combined a ten-syllable line—commonly found in French verse—with the iambic foot. This invention would later be recognized as a major breakthrough in developing a poetic form for the English language. Following Chaucer, Scottish poets such as William Dunbar and Robert Henryson adopted the use of iambic pentameter. The meter then began to appear less in English poetry until it was revived in the sixteenth century by English poet Sir Thomas Wyatt.
Wyatt is credited with evolving and revitalizing iambic pentameter while translating Italian sonnets. He skillfully applied and diversified iambic pentameter in his attempt to retain the impassioned utterances of the Petrarchan sonnet in English. Sir Philip Sidney, writing just after Wyatt, was also influential in adapting the iambic pentameter line from his encounters with Italian poetry. He furthered the form by integrating multisyllabic words into his lines. A contemporary of Sidney, Edmund Spenser composed his epic poem The Faerie Queene (books 1–3, 1590; books 4–6, 1596) in iambic pentameter.
Shakespeare is typically the poet most often connected with the iambic pentameter form. Also writing during the Renaissance, Shakespeare used the meter in both his sonnets and plays. Almost all of his 154 sonnets were written in iambic pentameter. Sometimes Shakespeare added an extra unstressed syllable to the end of a line, creating what is called a “feminine ending.” One of the most recognized soliloquies from the play Hamlet (1603) opens with an example: “To BE, or NOT to BE, THAT is the QUEStion.”
Twentieth-century poets writing in English struggled to break away from the traditional singsong quality of iambic pentameter. Poets such as Gerard Manley Hopkins and Ezra Pound sought new forms for their poetic lines. Hopkins used phonetic patterns that mimic sounds found in nature, while Pound appropriated Chinese poetic structures. Although iambic pentameter ceased to be a dominant convention in poetry in the era of modernism, it is still used by modern poets.
Bibliography
Attridge, Derek. Moving Words: Forms of English Poetry. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.
Burrow, Colin, ed. The Complete Sonnets and Poems. 2002. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. Print.
Hall, Jason David, ed. Meter Matters: Verse Cultures of the Long Nineteenth Century. Athens: Ohio UP, 2011. Print.
Keppel-Jones, David. Strict Metrical Tradition: Variation in the Literary Iambic Pentameter from Sidney and Spenser to Matthew Arnold. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 2001. Print.
Lechay, Dan. “English Iambic Verse: The Syllable.” Wordsworth Circle 43.3 (2012): 183–86. Print.
Martin, Meredith. The Rise and Fall of Meter: Poetry and English National Culture, 1860–1930. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2012. Print.
Powell, Grosvenor. “Two Paradigms for Iambic Pentameter and Twentieth-Century Metrical Experimentation.” Modern Language Review 91.3 (1996): 561–77. Print.
Wright, George T. Shakespeare’s Metrical Art. 1988. Berkeley: U of California P, 1991. Print.