Shakespeare’s Iambic Pentameter
Shakespeare’s sonnets are written predominantly in a metre called iambic pentameter rhyme scheme wherein every sonnet line includes ten syllables. The syllables are broken up into five pairs called iambs or feet.
An iamb is a metrical unit composed of one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. An example of an iamb will be good BYE. A line of iambic pentameters flows like this: baBOOM \/ baBOOM \/ baBOOM \/ baBOOM \/ baBOOM.
Here are some examples from the sonnets: When I \/ do COUNT \/ the CLOCK \/ that TELLS \/ the TIME — When IN \/ dis GRACE \/ with FOR \/ tune AND \/ men’s EYES — I ALL \/ a LONE \/ be WEEP \/ my OUT\/ cast STATE — Shall I \/ com PARE\/ thee TO \/ a SUM \/ mer’s DAY? Thou ART \/ more LOVE \/ ly AND \/ more TEM \/ per ATE — Shakespeare’s plays will also be written mainly in iambic pentameter, but the traces are unrhymed and not grouped to stanzas. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is referred to as blank verse.
The first twelve lines are divided to 3 quatrains with four lines each. The rhyme scheme of got the quatrains is abab cdcd efef. The couplet gets the rhyme scheme gg. This sonnet arrangement Is often referred to as the English sonnet or the Shakespearean sonnet, to differentiate it from the Italian Petrarque sonnet form which has two components: a rhyming octave and a rhyming sestet. The Petrarchan sonnet style was extremely popular using Elizabethan sonneteers, much to Shakespeare’s disdain.
Only 3 of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets don’t Conform to this arrangement: Sonnet 99, that has 15 lines, Sonnet 126, that gets 12 lines, plus Sonnet 145, which is composed in iambic tetrameter.
