iambic
In poetry, any verse metre in which the basic unit (the foot) consists of two syllables, the first unstressed, the second stressed. Iambic metre is close to natural speech and is one of the most widely used metres in English verse. The following example is a line from Thomas Gray's poem ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ (1751). It has five iambic feet, and is thus in a form known as iambic pentameter. The cur / few tolls / the knell / of part / ing day
Iambic pentameter is the basis of blank verse, a form frequently used in Elizabethan drama.
Iambic pentameter is the basis of blank verse, a form frequently used in Elizabethan drama.
© RM 2012. Helicon Publishing is division of RM.
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