How to Write a Poem in Iambic Pentameter.
The most common meter in poetry, iambic pentameter
is famously associated with William Shakespeare.
Here's how you can rhyme like a modern-day
bard.
You will need Understanding of poetic feet
Understanding of poetic meter Rhyme scheme
Pen and paper Works of renowned poets and
thesaurus (optional).
Step 1.
Know that an iamb is a rhythmic unit called
a foot and is a combination of unstressed
and stressed syllables.
One word with two syllables, like "instead,"
could be an iamb, or two monosyllabic words
could be an iamb, like "she wants."
Step 2.
Understand that pentameter is a meter that
means the iamb is repeated five times.
So iambic pentameter is a line of poetry with
five iambs.
Use this famous line from Shakespeare's Twelfth
Night as a guide: "If music be the food of
love, play on."
Step 3.
Choose a rhyme scheme, like ABAB.
Each letter represents the ending sound of
the line, so ABAB means the first line rhymes
with the third, and the second line rhymes
with the fourth.
Step 4.
Draw a row of five short lines on your paper.
Write one iamb – one unstressed syllable
and one stressed – on each line until you
have 10 syllables in iambic pentameter.
Step 5.
Repeat for the next three lines, making sure
the last syllable of line one rhymes with
the end of line three, and the end of line
two rhymes with the end of line four.
Step 6.
Expand the four lines to create a sonnet,
which comprises fourteen lines of iambic pentameter.
The Shakespearean sonnet typically has a rhyme
scheme of ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
The four lines together in a sonnet are called
a quatrain, while the ending two lines are
called a rhyming couplet.
Step 7.
Study the works of great poets who used the
form, including Shakespeare, William Wordsworth,
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Edna St. Vincent Millay,
and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Did you know Did you know?
Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets.
