A Lesson on
Iambic Pentameter
and
the Shakespearian
Rhyme Scheme
An iamb is
a prosodic foot of two syllables,
an unstressed followed by a
stressed one.
Prosodic comes from
prosody which means…
the study of poetic
meters and verse.
Pentameter
Well, let’s
look at the
roots---
means?
FIVE
METER means…
Meter
means…
measure
five measures.
IAMBIC PENTAMETER
means that you have five
measures of unstressed
and stressed syllables.
This is what you find in a
Shakespearian Sonnet.
What if…
I don’t
understand
when a
syllable is
stressed or
unstressed?
Let’s start with names.
Say these names and tell me where the
stressed syllable can be found.
Mandela
Cleopatra
Frost
Bradbury
Cisneros
Margaret
Giovanni
California
Mississippi
O’Connor Whitman
Albertson’s
Tutankhamen Jimenez
Poe
summer
autobiography
tragedy
remember
reflect
Endearing
eulogy
Interlopers
American hotdog
assessment
speech
literature
utensil
opportunity
farewell
transpire
prosecution
friendly
persuasive
understanding interpretive
predict
infer
****Each syllable must contain a vowel.
How many syllables can you find here?
How many are stressed syllables?
“The choices you make dictate the life you
lead.”
How many syllables are unstressed?
How many are stressed?
“It’s not who I am underneath but what I do
that defines me.”
How many are stressed?
How many are unstressed?
mark each syllable with a stressed
or unstressed symbol.
U is unstressed
/ is stressed
U / U / U / U / U
/
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
U / U / U / U / U /
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
U
/
U /
U / U / U
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of
/
May.
U /U / U / U / U /
Love is not all; it is not meat nor drink.
U / U / U / U / U /
Nor slumber nor a roof against the rain;
U / U / U / U / U /
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
U /
U /
U/
U /
U/
IAMBIC PENATMETER
U/
U /
U /
U/
U /
IAMB
PENTAMETER= FIVE MEASURES
U / U / U / U / U /
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
U / U / U / U / U /
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
U
/ U / U / U / U
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of
/
May.
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 dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Now shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
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,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime to hot the eye of heaven shines,
C
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
D
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
F
Now shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, E
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
F
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
G
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
A
B
C
D
E
G
A Shakespearian Rhyme Scheme
ABAB
CDCD
EFEF
GG
Iambic
Pentameter
ababcdcdefef gg
rhyme scheme (14 lines)
Shakespearian Sonnet
1. Define iambic pentameter.
2. Write a stressed symbol.
3. Write an unstressed symbol.
4. Write the stress and unstressed symbols for:
supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
5. A rhyme scheme is like a _________.
6. Write the Shakespearian Rhyme Scheme.
7. Who created this rhyme scheme?
8. All Shakespearian sonnets must have
_____.