Shakespeare’s Style: The Sonnet Form and Iambic Pentameter
Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets in addition to his plays. In fact, he even added sonnets into his plays.
Before we begin reading Hamlet, we will be approaching Shakespeare’s style on a much smaller scale
with that of a poem called a sonnet or ‘little song.’
The Shakespearean sonnet, sometimes referred to as the Elizabethan sonnet, is distinctive in that it
follows a very specific format. The Shakespearean sonnet has 14 lines, consisting of approximately 10
syllables in each line. Each line of verse is written in iambic pentameter. A line of iambic pentameter
refers to the rhythm or beat of the line, namely the number of metrical feet and stressed syllables. An
iamb is a combination of an “unstressed” syllable followed by a “stressed” syllable. Pentameter refers
to five metrical units, also known as iambs. When written, the “U” symbol represents an unstressed
syllable while the “/” indicates a stressed syllable.
To understand the idea of a stressed or an unstressed syllable, think about the syllables of some
common words. The words ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ can be divided into syllables: hel*lo and good*bye.
If we place the stress, or the emphasis, in the natural place it would look like this:
U /
Hel*lo
U
/
Good*bye
If we place the emphasis on the first syllables, the words would sound odd to our ears, and
look like this:
/ U
Hel*lo
/
U
Good*bye
When scanning Shakespearean verse, one would mark the line as follows:
U /
Let me
U /
not to
U /
the mar
U /
riage of
U
/
true minds (Sonnet 116)
Finally, Shakespearean sonnets always follow the same rhyme scheme: ABABCDCDEFEFGG, ending
with the rhyming couplet, or two rhyming lines. See Sonnet 116 below.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments, love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come,
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom:
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Directions: Read Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 and “scan” or mark the division of
each iamb as well as the unstressed and stressed syllables.
William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29
When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf heav’n with my bootless cries
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despis’n,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day aris’n
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
1
When
2
IN
3
dis
4
GRACE
5
6
7
8
with
FOR
tune
AND
9
men’s
10
EYES
Rhyme
Scheme
A