Iambic Pentameter and Sonnets
Shakespeare wrote
38 plays, including
Romeo & Juliet.
He also wrote about
154 sonnets.
 sonnet : a fourteen-line
poem
 Most of Shakespeare’s
sonnets dealt with
themes like love, life
and death, and beauty.
 unstressed syllable : a weakly pronounced syllable of a word;
marked with a U
 stressed syllable : a strongly pronounced syllable of a word;
marked with a /
 meter : the basic rhythmic pattern of a line of poetry
 foot : one smaller part of meter; each foot contains a
combination of stressed and unstressed syllables
 iamb : an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (U /)
U
/
 Afraid  Af - raid
U
/
 Become  be - come
U
/
 Appoint  Ap-point
 pentameter : five sets of feet, containing 10 syllables
 Many parts of
Romeo and Juliet and
Shakespeare’s sonnets are all written in
Iambic Pentameter
Five sets of an unstressed syllable
followed by a stressed syllable.
OR
Each line of poetry contains five iambs.
 Five iambs
U/ U/ U/ U/ U/
1 2 3 4 5
 Two main purposes for iambic pentameter
1. Easier to memorize
 Why do you think it would be important to Shakespeare, a
playwright, that his writing was easy to memorize?
2. Helps the reader to tell the difference between upper
class characters and lower class characters

Shakespeare would write lines for upper-class characters
in iambic pentameter.
 Another reason for using iambic pentameter
3. We talk naturally in this rhythm.
 We naturally speak in unstressed and stressed
syllables. If we didn’t, we would be speaking in a
monotone voice.
U / U / U / U / U /
I am a pirate with a wooden leg.
I AM a PIrate WITH a WOODen LEG.
U / U / U / U
/ U /
I’m hungry. Is it almost time for lunch?
I’m HUNgry. IS it ALmost TIME for LUNCH?
U
/
U
/
U / U / U /
We hold these truths to be self-evident.
We HOLD these TRUTHS to BE self- EVidENT.
U / U / U / U / U /
So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
So FOUL and FAIR a DAY I HAVE not SEEN.
U /
U /
U
/ U / U
/
But soft: what light through yonder window breaks?
U/ U /
U / U / U /
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.