Shakespeare’s Meter and Rhyme
Making Shakespeare slightly less
confusing… Hopefully.
METER
• Shakespeare very frequently writes in what is
called IAMBIC PENTAMETER.
• Penta means “five”, so pentameter means that
every line has five beats.
• An “Iamb” is a way to explain what parts of a
word or phrase are stressed when spoken. An
Iamb represents when you have an unstressed
syllable followed by a stressed syllable:
• Hello, attack, reduce, return, destroy
• My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
• Read the above line. Notice how you naturally say the
bolded syllables with more stress than everything else?
You may not realize it, but where you put the stress on
a word makes a difference. Try saying the word “Jello”
to yourself. See how the stress is on the first syllable?
Try putting the stress at the end. Try saying “Jello tasty
in my belly” with the stress at the end of each word
instead of the beginning.
• After you explain to everyone around you who is now
giving you a weird stare that you’re not an absolute
idiot, you’re able to realize that syllable patterns create
rhythm! In the above line, every other syllable is
stressed. Shakespeare didn’t write 154 sonnets of 14
lines each (2156 lines) like this on accident. He very
carefully crafted them this way.
My Mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun
• When you have an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed
syllable, you call that an “Iamb”. Since there are five total iambs
in the above line, we say that it is in pentameter. “Penta”
means five and “meter” means, uh, well, meter. Together you
get iambic pentameter! Lets look at that line one more time,
this time split into iambs:
My Mi
stress’ eyes
are no
thing like
the sun
• Obviously poetry scanning is a lot more complex than this, but
if you understand what Iambic pentameter is, you will have an
easier time with Shakespeare.
Iambic Pentameter Check:
• So foul and fair a day I have not seen
Iambic Pentameter Check:
• So foul and fair a day I have not seen
• Yes, it’s Iambic Pentameter!
Iambic Pentameter Check 2:
• Eye of newt and toe of frog
Iambic Pentameter Check 2:
• Eye of newt and toe of frog
• No… Notice that the stress comes before the
unstressed syllables in this line. Also notice
that there are only four stressed syllables, not
five.
• This would be called Trochaic Tetrameter, but
you don’t need to know that.
Iambic Pentameter Check 3:
•
•
•
•
Soulja Boy off in this oh
Watch me crank it, watch me roll
Watch me crank dat, Soulja Boy
Then Superman dat oh
Iambic Pentameter Check 3:
•
•
•
•
Soulja Boy off in this oh
Watch me crank it, watch me roll
Watch me crank dat, Soulja Boy
Then Superman dat oh
• …No, it’s not Iambic Pentameter, but it does
have a meter! Most good songs have meter
because meter is rhythm.
Group Work…
• In groups of 3-4 people, look at the poem that
you have been given. You will have to analyze
and identify the stress and stress pattern of
the entire poem, going line by line.
• When you have finished, you have to decide if
it is Iambic Pentameter or something else.
Rhyme Time!
• Rhyme is defined as “Correspondence of sound
between words or the endings of words”.
• Basically, it means two words end with the
same sound.
• “I wanted to say hey,
• But you died yesterday”
• Hey and yesterday rhyme because they have
the same sound. It’s pretty obvious and easy.
Understanding the Rhyme of
Shakespeare
•
•
•
One of Shaskespeare’s most famous forms of writing is the sonnet. All sonnets have 14
lines, but they also have a very specific rhyme scheme, which is a pattern of rhymes in a
poem.
When talking about rhyme schemes, we almost exclusively look at the end of every line of
poetry. Whatever that final sound is in every line is going to be the “rhyme”.
Just take a look at this piece of eloquent and well-thought-out poetry from Eminem and
Rihanna’s “Love the Way you Lie”:
Just gonna stand there and watch me burn A
Well that's alright because I like the way it hurts A
Just gonna stand there and hear me cry B
Well, that's alright because I love the way you lie B
If you read the A’s and B’s out loud, pat yourself on the
back for officially failing at life and making Shakespeare
cry in his grave. Those are to label the rhyme scheme.
The first two lines rhyme with each other, so we call
that sound the “A” sound. The next two lines are
different, but they rhyme with one another, so we call
them the “B” sound.
Rhyme practice:
• I play the street life
Because there's no place I can go
Street life
It's the only life I know
Street life
And there's a thousand cards to play
Street life
Until you play your life away
Rhyme practice:
• I play the street life A
Because there's no place I can go B
Street life A
It's the only life I know B
Street life A
And there's a thousand cards to play C
Street life A
Until you play your life away C
Rhyme Practice 2:
• Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
Rhyme Practice 2:
• Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? A
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: B
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, A
And summer's lease hath all too short a date: B
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, C
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; D
And every fair from fair sometime declines, C
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; D
Back to groups…
• Now in your groups look at the same poem.
Label the rhyme scheme of the entire poem.
Review… Mini Quiz!
• 1. What does “Penta” mean?
• 2. Which two of these words is an Iamb:
Savior, Killer, Hello, Corvette, Burger
• 3. What is a rhyme scheme?
• 4. What form of poetry is Shakespeare famous
for?
• 5. What country is Shakespeare from? …