Reading a poem for rhythm and meter is called “scansion”ġ0 Feet and Meter A poetic “foot” is a multi-syllable “chunk” of the line that has a particular order of stress iamb: unstressed followed by stressed Examples: aRISE, aGAINST, reSPECT trochee: stressed followed by unstressed Examples: WINdow, NOthing, TWINkle, FORtune Other feet: anapest, dactyl… and more Who attends a play? Audience What is the root of that word? Latin: audientia … to hearĨ The Actor’s Dilemma At the deepest level: what am I saying? What am I feeling? On the simplest level: How do I remember all those lines? Hamlet has over 1300 lines Is it easier to remember a paragraph or the words to a song?ĩ Scansion Songs have rhythm… so do poems

Who attends a play? Audience What is the root of that word? HUGE! Used between 17 and 26 THOUSAND different words in his plays and poems “Invented” over 1700 words (including…) arouse bet eyeball lonely obscene puking swagger torture No (or very limited) stage sets No (or very few) stage directions in the text No (or very limited) special effects All of this information must be conveyed through LANGUAGE No (or very limited) stage sets No (or very few) stage directions in the text No (or very limited) special effects Shakespearean Verse Scansion: Meaning and the Actor’s Guide Putting these two terms together, iambic pentameter is a line of writing that consists of ten syllables in a specific pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, or a short syllable followed by a long syllable.1 Scansion: Meaning and the Actor’s Guide

A line of poetry written in iambic pentameter has five feet = five sets of stressed syllables and unstressed syllables. ‘Penta’ means five, so pentameter simply means five meters. (Interestingly, the iamb sounds a little like a heartbeat). English is the perfect language for iambus because of the way the stressed and unstressed syllables work. For example, deLIGHT, the SUN, forLORN, one DAY, reLEASE. Or another way to think of it it a short syllable followed by a long syllable.

In a line of poetry, an ‘iamb’ is a foot or beat consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. If you’ve studied any of Shakespeare’s sonnets you may have heard of ‘iambic pentameter’… but what exactly is iambic pentameter? Iambic Pentameter Definition Iambic Each Shakespeare’s play name links to a range of resources about each play: Character summaries, plot outlines, example essays and famous quotes, soliloquies and monologues: All’s Well That Ends Well Antony and Cleopatra As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Coriolanus Cymbeline Hamlet Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry VIII Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry V Julius Caesar King John King Lear Loves Labour’s Lost Macbeth Measure for Measure The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor A Midsummer Night’s Dream Much Ado About Nothing Othello Pericles Richard II Richard III Romeo & Juliet The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Timon of Athens Titus Andronicus Troilus & Cressida Twelfth Night The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Winter’s Tale This list of Shakespeare plays brings together all 38 plays in alphabetical order. Plays It is believed that Shakespeare wrote 38 plays in total between 15.

Scansion examples shakespeare