Why is iambic tetrameter used

The second and fourth lines are actually Iambic Trimeter , but once again Frost reaffirms the meter from which they vary by placing a solidly Iambic Tetrameter line between them the fourth line. This is a standard variant foot that can be found with the Elizabethans.

Some call it anacrusis. A headless foot means that the first syllable of the foot is missing. This makes the line tetrameter and makes the final rhyme a perfect rhyme. Many of his more striking colloquial and dailectal effects rely on it.

This is one of my favorite Sonnets by Shakespeare. I, drawing my line in the Vermont snow, say they are wrong. The figurative language is straightforward — the simplest of his sonnets. Figurative language is any that uses metaphor, simile or any of the other rhetorical figures. Some scholars say it must have been an early sonnet, which is possible.

The supposition, I suppose, is that Iambic Tetrameter is a warm up to Iambic Pentameter or that a more youthful poem will be less figurative. These are all possibilities, but the humor and ease of the sonnet feels more assured to me. I like to imagine that it was written after a marital spat as a kind of humorous peace offering. One other note: This is among the first sonnets that I read by Shakespeare when in highschool and it was the first that I immediately understood.

For me, it opened the door to all his other sonnets and made Shakespeare human. The first four lines would be scanned as follows:. Shakespeare mixes it up a little. The final quatrain is all very straightward in terms of its poetic language. One could read the line as follows:. Heaven is one those words that Shakespeare might have treated as a compromise between an iambic foot and an anapest.

I get the feeling that he jotted this quickly, unselfconsciously for his own pleasure and the pleasure of his lover. And who was she? The final couplet, interestingly, may hold a clue. Shakespeare breaths a sigh of relief.

It could be for the rhyme but this idea strikes me as overly awkward even for a young Shakespeare — the greatest literary genius of our language. He was more resourceful than that. Something is up. There is speculation, and I agree with the speculation, that Shakespeare was emplying a pun. If scansion is new to you, check out my post on the basics.

One of the reasons I write these posts is so that a few readers, interested in meter and rhyme, might want to try out my poetry. Take a copy to class if you need an example of Modern Iambic Pentameter. Pass it around if you have friends or relatives interested in this kind of poetry. April 23 One Last Request! I love comments. April 25 Audio of Robert Frost added. Newman references a letter that Frost wrote to Susan Hayes Ward in Plymouth, New Hampshire, February 10, Two lonely cross-roads that themselves cross each other I have walked several times this winter without meeting or overtaking so much as a single person on foot or on runners.

The new scansion, immediately below, retains the tetrameter meter throughout more on how later. You can still find my old scansion at the bottom of the post. Decide for yourself which scansion makes more sense. As for myself, I lean toward the new scansion. Example 4- I love the Jocund dance by William Blake. Example 5- If you were coming in the fall by Emily Dickinson. Iambic tetrameter is defined as a meter in poetry consisting four iambic feet four pairs of first unstressed syllable is followed by a unstressed syllable.

Example 2- I wandered lonely as a cloud by William Wordsworth. Example 3- Trees by Joyce Kilmer. Example 4- Jerusalem by William Blake. Iambic pentameter is defined as a meter in poetry consisting five iambic feet five pairs of first unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Iambic pentameter is the most common meter used in poetry writing and often can be seen in poetries of many poets and writers.

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