Understanding Metric Verse and Iambic

Pentameter

All words with multiple syllables

have accented and unaccented syllables.

For example:Behind

The truck is behind the cow.

be/hindTwo syllables

be / HINDUnaccented, accented

Click icon to add picture This is different thanBE / hind.

Try writing out the stressed and unstressed syllables of

your last name.WEST/onBUR/gad

SHAKE/speare

This is the rhythm of words.

THIS is the RHYthm of WORDS.

EVery TIME we TALK, we STRING toGETHer

ACCented and UNACCented SYLLables withOUT even THINKing

aBOUT it.

POets DO think aBOUT it.

they USE the RYTHthm of LANguage to HELP

conVEY their MESSage.

When you notate the stressed and unstressed syllables, it is called scansion, and it is important because it puts visual markers onto an otherwise entirely heard phenomenon.

These are the terms for groupings of syllables:

Iamb (Iambic) Unstressed + Stressed U /Trochee (Trochaic) Stressed + Unstressed / USpondee (Spondaic) Stressed + Stressed / /Anapest (Anapestic) Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed U U / Dactyl (Dactylic) Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed / U U

Each set of syllables, an iamb or a trochee for example, is called a foot.

Example: U / U / U /(Shall I) (compare) (you to) U / U / (a summ)(er's day?)

U / U / U /(Shall I) (compare) (you to) U / U / (a summ)(er's day?)

This line would be iambic, since its entirely made up of iambs. Because there are 5 feet in the line, it is called iambic pentameter.

Examples:

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Now, you can try:Working with a partner, scan the

selected pages from “Yertle the Turtle”.

Once you can scan a poem, you can try to analyze why the poet uses that kind of meter.

What does iambic pentameter sound like?

Why did Dr. Seuss write Yertle the Turtle in anapestic tetrameter? What effect did it have?

How did the meter affect the witch’s incantation in Macbeth?

How else could a poet use meter?