Shakespeare: Meter
Romeo and Juliet
William Shakespeare (1563-1616)
Shakespeare wrote Romeo and
Juliet around the year 1593.
That was 421 years ago!
•Elizabethan English (Early Modern English)
looks different from modern English in some
ways, and similar in many ways.
•Shakespeare wrote his plays to be performed
and heard, not read.
•Without microphones, the actors relied on lines
with a rhythm and an audience that already
knew the plot.
Rhythm follows the meter
Meter is a rhythm of accented and unaccented
syllables.
Example: To be or not to be
Shakespeare wrote mainly in Iambic Pentameter.
You will recognize the heartbeat rhythm:
ba BUM | ba BUM | ba BUM | ba BUM | ba BUM
but SOFT | what LIGHT | through Yon- | der WIN- | dow BREAKS
How many sections or heartbeats are there in
this line?
Five! = Pentameter
Iambic Pentameter:
•consists of ten syllables, alternating
unstressed and stressed syllables.
•Each “heartbeat” is called an iamb. An iamb is a
unit of two syllables.
•The group of syllables is called a foot.
There are other kinds of feet, or rhythms. We
could have the opposite: BUM ba BUM ba BUM ba
(Trochaic meter)
Example: PEACE, en |-JOY ment, |LOVE and |
PLEA-sure! (Robert Burns)