Iambic pentameter has been popular for centuries and was used to create a particular rhythmic pattern in written works.
This poetic device has been used in modern times by writers and poets for major poetic forms, including blank verse and the heroic couplet. It is also used for some rhymed stanzas.
What is Iambic Pentameter?
- Iambic describes the type of foot used in a line of verse
- Two syllables comprise each metrical foot.
- Pentameter describes the number of feet per line. (Penta is derived from Greek and means five; meter comes from the Greek word for measure.)
- In iambic pentameter, five pairs of syllables or iambs make up a ten-syllable line.
- The syllable stresses occur at fixed intervals.
How Does an Iambic Foot Sound?
An iambic foot contains two syllables which are unstressed/stressed. The rhythm thus created would be: da DUM.
It can be seen that in iambic pentameter, each line in a verse is made up of 5 pairs of unstressed/stressed syllables. Each pair is known as an iambus and the pattern of stresses determines the rhythm: da DUM/da DUM/da DUM/da DUM/da DUM.
The rhythm of iambic pentameter is well-suited to the English language and is, in fact, the most common type of meter used in English poetry, seen in major poetic forms.
Examples of Iambic Pentameter
- Rough winds/do shake/the dar/ling buds/of May--Shakespeare
- To swell/the gourd/and plump/the haz/el shells--Keats
Poets Who Used Iambic Pentameter
- William Shakespeare used iambic pentameter in many of his plays and sonnets and exercised great skill in mixing iambic pentameter with other meters to produce works that, by their very diversity, captivated audiences.
- Poets Keats, Milton, Dryden and Donne also incorporated iambic pentameter when composing some of their verses.
- The poet Robert Frost used this to good effect in his work, Mending Wall.
Iambic Pentameter and Blank Verse
Unrhymed iambic pentameter is a widely used metrical pattern in English poetry, one which closely mimics the rhythm of English speech. While free verse sets aside boundaries imposed by metrical forms, using iambic pentameter gives blank verse a certain flow that's pleasing to the ear.
* Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, p.614 defines iambic as: a metrical foot consisting of one short syllable followed by one long syllable or of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable; on p. 917, pentameter is described as: having five metrical feet.
Poetic Meter--A Look at Iambic, Trochee, Anapest and Dactyl Feet --different meters used in poetry
Swinburne's A Forsaken Garden--how a forsaken garden gives insights about life, love and the passage of time
Melody Rhodes - M. Rhodes is author of the Bedbug Books. She's been published in Canada, U.S. U.K. & NZ and has won awards for her poetry/prose.
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