In the example below, one of Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets, he collapses several words with apostrophes so they fit within the requisite number of ten syllables per line: the two syllables of owest down one for ow’st, the three syllables of wanderest down to two for wand’rest, and the two syllables of growest down one for grow’st. Iambic pentameter also de-emphasizes the rhyme at the end of each line, since it falls on one of the regularly accented syllables, therefore giving it no more weight in the line than any of the other accented syllables. Iambic pentameter is a rhythm thats pleasing to the ear and closely resembles the rhythm of everyday speech, or a heartbeat. This allowed the flow of each line of poetry to seem as familiar as possible to both readers and listeners. Writers in Shakespeare’s era believed that iambic pentameter most closely matched the normal speaking patterns of native English speakers. A sonnet is a one-stanza, 14-line poem, written in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter means 10 syllables of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables.

Each line is written in iambic pentameter, meaning that each lines contains exactly ten syllables, every other one accented. Writing a sonnet in iambic pentameter is partly about expressing a message and. The sonnet always has 14 lines and 10 syllables in each line. An iamb, as you probably know, is a two-syllable poetic foot having one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable, like today and before.

It has a strict number of lines and ways of rhyming, and it uses the iambic meter. The form adds power to writing by drawing on this history. Shakespeare also followed another rule that was popular during his era but far less now. A sonnet is a form of poetry with a long and romantic history.

Sonnet iambic pentameter