PROFESSOR: So, key number four
is decipher the meter.
So, oftentimes Shakespeare
writes in verse.
That means there's a particular
structure to the
language he's using.
Sometimes he writes in prose.
That just means he writes
in a free form.
That is, the words
have no meter.
They don't have a
rhyme scheme.
They're just words like you
would read in a novel.
But when he's writing an
iambic pentameter, it's
important to be able to just
understand and decipher some
of that structure so that you
understand what he's doing and
why that is.
And it actually helps you find
some clues into what's going
on in the passage.
So, iambic pentameter is
the mode that he uses.
And what that means is that
there are five feet in a line.
Pentameter.
Pent means five.
So, there're five
feet in a line.
That means five sections
in a line.
And each of those feet
is made up of an iam,
which means two syllables.
The first syllable
is stressed.
The second syllable
is unstressed.
And it goes like this.
Di dum, di dum, di dum,
di dum, di dum.
That's how a line reads.
Di dum, di dum, di dum,
di dum, di dum.
The di is the unstressed and
the dum is the stressed.
Di dum, di dum, di dum,
di dum, di dum.
Now, this is really important
because it establishes a
rhythm that the production
can utilize
to affect the audience.
And it's a really
powerful rhythm.
I'm sure you recognize it.
It's the rhythm of
our own heart.
Bum bum, bum bum, bum bum.
Di dum, di dum.
And that's one of the reasons
audiences respond so well to
poetry of that nature because it
mimics a rhythm that we're
so familiar with and that we--
it's intrinsic in our bodies,
in our psyches.
The other thing about it is,
we think, oh, it's iambic
pentameter.
That must be weird.
That must be strange.
But we actually speak in
it fairly regularly.
I could take a sentence from
modern day life and you might
find that it fits in
iambic pentameter.
I went outside to get
some air today.
I went outside to get
some air today.
That's iambic pentameter.
It's close to the way
we already speak.
So, even though it sounds fancy,
it's built to sound
like human speech.
It just heightens it
just a little bit.
So, we're going to look at a
line, and just figure out how
to decipher this line.
So, there are five feet, which
means there's a total of 10
syllables, typically, in a line
of iambic pentameter.
So, let's look at the
Romeo and Juliet.
It's, "But, soft!
What light through yonder window
breaks?" That's the
first line.
So, we've got an unstressed
syllable at the
beginning, but soft.
Di dum.
"But, soft!
What light through yonder window
breaks?" "But soft,
what light through yonder window
breaks?" And you can
divide that up into five feet.
"But soft, what light through
yonder window breaks?" And
there's five feet.
And you decipher that and you
say, OK, he's speaking in
iambic pentameter.
And there's usually
a reason for that.
Sometimes he's writing in
prose and sometimes he's
writing in iambic pentameter.
When he changes back and forth,
there's usually a
reason that you can guess, OK,
here Romeo is talking to the
love of his life.
So, he heightens things
a little bit.
He's going to speak in poetry.
The next one, "It is the east,
and Juliet is the sun." So, we
have to look at Juliet.
Because you could say
Juliet or Juliet.
So, it helps you understand how
to say the words, too. "It
is the east, and Juliet
is the sun." There you
have your five feet.
Now, the other thing that the
verse does for us, we talked
about, it establishes a rhythm
that we feel as we
go through the play.
Bum bum, bum bum, bum bum,
bum bum, bum bum,
bum bum, bum bum.
But that rhythm, having been
established, one of the most
exciting things that happens
is when Shakespeare breaks
that rhythm and he starts to
explore other rhythms and can
create a rhythmic counterpoint
to that rhythm
that's already going.
And when you do that, you can
find a lot of clues as to
what's happening.
And sometimes, that's a really
exciting moment.
So, let's just look at one
example of how Shakespeare
might break this rhythm.
And it's really a great example
from Romeo and Juliet,
from another scene from
Romeo and Juliet.
"Gallop apace, you fiery-footed
steeds" is the
first line.
This is when Juliet is waiting
for Romeo to come and do fun
stuff with her.
They're going to have sex, OK?
They're going to have sex.
So, she's waiting for that.
And she says, "Gallop apace, you
fiery-footed steeds." But
if you look at that, you see
that it's not actually the
same rhythm.
It's not di dum, di dum,
di dum, di dum, di dum.
It's dum, di di dum, di
dum, di dum, di dum.
Gallop apace.
You wouldn't say, gallop
apace, you
fiery-footed steeds.
She says, "gallop apace."
And that's a one place where
he changes the rhythm.
It's actually called a troche
at the beginning.
You don't need to know that.
But, gallop apace, you
fiery-footed steeds.
And look at what she's
talking about.
The image she's conjuring is
horses, fiery-footed horses.
And she's saying, go faster
you fiery-footed steeds.
And you can already hear in that
rhythm that galloping.
Gallop apace, you fiery-footed
steeds.
[HORSES GALLOPING]
That's the noise of the
horses galloping.
And then you see that as he
breaks that iambic pentameter,
he makes a strong statement.
She's so impatient that she
can't even stay in the rhythm
that we're expecting.
So, she says, "gallop apace."
And it's really an exciting
moment because it breaks the
rhythm and gives us a clue as
to what Juliet is
experiencing.
And what she's experiencing
is time cannot
quite go quickly enough.
