Blank Verse- A blank verse is unrhymed poetry that is written in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is a meter in poetry that consists of five feet or units. Each foot contains 2 syllables. Majority of the pairs begin with an unstressed syllable which is then followed by a stressed syllable. An unstressed syllable means that it is not bearing an accent for example short vowels. Stressed Syllable is a syllable having strong relative emphasis in a metrical pattern.
"The Ball Poem" by John Berryman:
What is the boy now, who has lost his ball,
What, what is he to do? I saw it go
Merrily bouncing, down the street, and then
Merrily over-there it is in the water!
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.
My teacher said to mark the meters in the examples to prove they are iambic pentameters.
I need help with that.
Greetings!
There are various ways in which you can denote the stressed syllables in iambic pentameter. You could, for example, put a mark, such as an "x" over the stressed syllable. That doesn't work very well in this format, so I will put the stressed syllables in bold.
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
You will note the the accent does not always fall on the same syllable in the couplet. Also, in this example, Shakespeare has varied the form of the iambic pentameter by adding an additional weak syllable on the end of the line (the "tion" in "question," for example).
Barryman has added two extra syllables to his ending, with "Merrily over-there it is in the water!" In that line, "is in the" functions almost as if it were one syllable, like a triplet in music, where three notes are played on one beat.
I hope this helps get you started!
Thanks,
Sarah, EssayForum.com
