sonnet 73 is writen in iambic pentameter.

No doubt this unofficial decision was helped along immensely by the spectacular success of the plays of Christopher Marlowe, which were written in fairly strict iambic pentameter – that is, without a lot of variation built into it. It did not take long for Elizabethan playwrights to adopt iambic pentameter as the go-to meter for English language plays. John Heywood wrote in rhyming couplets, but without any meter at all! Pre-Elizabethan drama also appeared in a variety of styles. Prior to the Elizabethan era, English poets used a variety of meters. They could write lines of five iambs (pentameter), as the Latin, French and Italian poets commonly did, or lines of six iambs (hexameter), as the ancient Greeks usually did. Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales, wrote largely in iambic pentameter. The use of four iambic feet, known as iambic tetrameter, was never common in serious English poetry. But in poetry, such rhythm lacks gravitas. This allows you to move your feet and swing your hips in an inherently satisfying and smooth way. Why? Think about how most Western music (other than waltzes) has 4 beats to the measure.

The reason has to do with the fact that there are 4 iambs in each line. It would drive you crazy, the endless sing-songy-ness. And its stress-pattern fits that of iambic meter beautifully.īut would you want to watch an entire 2-hour play of Dr. Notice the almost exclusive use of short, easy words – this is the vocabulary around which the English language is structured. Seuss’ lines from Green Eggs and Ham above – all one-syllable Anglo-Saxon words. This is because English, with it foundational vocabulary of short, clipped (mostly one-syllable) words fits the iambic rhythm beautifully. Why does English poetry use iambic meter?Įnglish poets realized centuries ago that the iambic meter or rhythm is the natural rhythm of the English language. Each pair of such syllables, in which an unstressed beat is followed by a stressed one, is called an iamb.

This rhythm, in which unstressed syllables or beats are followed by stressed syllables, is called iambic. If you do, you will likely find yourself employing a sing-songy rhythm: Please reread the famous lines above by Dr. A famous 20th century poet loved writing in iambic meter, as shown in these well-known lines: I do not like them Sam I am,

Sonnet 73 is writen in iambic pentameter.