When a pair of syllables is arranged as a short followed by a long, or an unstressed followed by a stressed, pattern, that foot is said to be 'iambic'. An English unstressed syllable is equivalent to a classical short syllable, while an English stressed syllable is equivalent to a classical long syllable. In English, the rhythm is created through the use of stress, alternating between unstressed and stressed syllables. In Ancient Greek and Latin, the rhythm was created through the alternation of short and long syllables.

Different languages express rhythm in different ways. The classical terms were adapted to describe the equivalent meters in English accentual-syllabic verse. The term 'iamb' originally applied to the quantitative meter of classical poetry. To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

The scansion of the examples above can be notated as follows: In this notation a standard line of iambic pentameter would look like this: It is possible to notate this with a '/' marking ictic syllables (experienced as beats) and a '×' marking nonictic syllables (experienced as offbeats). When I do count the clock that tells the timeĪnd in John Keats' ode To Autumn: To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells Straightforward examples of this rhythm can be heard in the opening line of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 12:

The da-DUM of a human heartbeat is a common example of this rhythm.Ī standard line of iambic pentameter is five iambic feet in a row: Problems playing this file? See media help.Īn iambic foot is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. William Shakespeare famously used iambic pentameter in his plays and sonnets, John Milton in his Paradise Lost, and William Wordsworth in The Prelude.Īs lines in iambic pentameter usually contain ten syllables, it is considered a form of decasyllabic verse. It is used in several major English poetic forms, including blank verse, the heroic couplet, and some of the traditionally rhymed stanza forms. It was first introduced into English by Chaucer in 14th century on the basis of French and Italian models. Iambic pentameter is the most common meter in English poetry. ' Pentameter' indicates a line of five 'feet'. 'Iambic' refers to the type of foot used, here the iamb, which in English indicates an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (as in a-bove). The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called ' feet'. Iambic pentameter ( / aɪ ˌ æ m b ɪ k p ɛ n ˈ t æ m ɪ t ər/ eye- AM-bik pen- TAM-it-ər) is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama.

Metric line consisting of five iambic feet

Sonnet 106 iambic pentameter