/lit/ - Literature

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iambic_pentameter

An iamb consists of two syllables, one unstressed, one stressed. Pentameter means there are ten of these. A random line of ten syllables is neither iambic (unless you're really lucky) nor pentameter.

>>690705
yes ive been there, i want to ask on a more personal basis.

no. ten syllable lines with 5 metrical iambic feet.

the first syllable in perfect iambic pentameter should be unstressed, then the next stressed--continue in this fashion until line is completed...then continue until poem is completed.

sage for homework?

>>690712
not homework. i wanna write a poem in this meter, i wanna make sure im doing it right

>>690709

Ten of the individual syllables I mean. Five iambs. Ten syllables. ffffme

>>690722
example please? not from wikipedia >.>

>>690717
okay, if you know where a stress lands on a syllable of each word, you should be good to go with the advice we gave. if not, look up a dictionary and it will show you were the stressed and unstressed syllables are on every word.

>>690730
>>were
>>where

fuck

>>690730
thanks guys. if i cant get this to work, itll just be a story. but i think the premise to it is pretty awesome

>>690730

But what if you use single syllable words? How can you say one word is stressed and another is not?

can we sticky this thread?

>>690724
HAT beck'ning ghost, along the moonlight shade
Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?
'Tis she!--but why that bleeding bosom gored,
Why dimly gleams the visionary sword?
O, ever beauteous, ever friendly! tell,
Is it, in Heav'n, a crime to love too well?
To bear too tender or too firm a heart,
To act a lover's or a Roman's part?
Is there no bright reversion in the sky
For those who greatly think, or bravely die?
Why bade ye else, ye Pow'rs! her soul aspire
Above the vulgar flight of low desire?
Ambition first sprung from your blest abodes;
The glorious fault of angels and of gods;
Thence to their images on earth it flows,
And in the breasts of kings and heroes glows.
Most souls, 'tis true, but peep out once an age,
Dull sullen pris'ners in the body's cage:
Dim lights of life, that burn a length of years,
Useless, unseen, as lamps in sepulchres;
Like Eastern kings a lazy state they keep,
And close confined to their own palace, sleep.

does not need to be in heroic couplets, though

>>690724

Tonight1 I'll fuck2 your mo3ther's butt4 so well5
that by1 the morn'2 her ass3 will start4 to swell5.

>>690741

it's how it sounds in relation to the other words. if you just read words aloud, you can hear where the stronger sound is.

>>690750
the FUCK are those now? heroic couplets

>>690759
heroic couplets...iambic pentameter with two consecutive rhyming lines.

>>690783
niceness

>>690752
The stresses are what are super important, so building on anon's poem:

ToNIGHT I'll FUCK your MOther's BUTT so WELL
that BY the MORN her ASS will START to SWELL

If it doesn't sound like verbal skipping you're doing something wrong.

>>690819
seems logical. should it come naturally?

>>690819

well done.

>>690831

no. usually it doesn't. english/american speech patterns are not akin to iambic form...its more prone to dactylic forms used by greek poets

you need to alternate between unstressed and stressed syllables for a total of 10 syllables.

Boom, iambic pentameter

>>690831
Depends on what you mean by naturally. It should sound natural. You may have to work and jostle the words around to create the effect.

>>690852
>dactylic forms
whats the difference

BA DUM BA DUM BA DUM BA DUM

It's that simple bro

>>690860
i don't know if this will just confuse you or not, but what the hell.

dactylic form consists of a metrical foot composed of a stressed syllable and then two unstressed syllables.

for a modern example from the beatles:

PIC-ture your-SELF in a BOAT on a RIV-er with
TAN-ger-ine TREE-ees and MAR-ma-lade Ski-ii-ees

>>690819

To write pentameter, you need to count
To ten, or sometimes counting to eleven
Is necessary for an ending like:
"To be or not to be, that is the question".
That ending's feminine, the unstressed beat
is hanging out there, but it's still blank verse.
You also need to pay attention to
The line break, just like I did there. See that?
That's called "enjambment". Oft times blank verse can
Do interesting things by how you end, or don't
Quite end the line. Like: this line is end-stopped.
Is that enough, or should I give you more?

>>690888
i got you bro, no seriously, i understood that

>>690920

well, good. hopefully it also helped with the iambic pentameter thing.

>>690917
genug danke

Look at the dactyls of classical metrical fame!
Fucking your mom as you notice you just lost the game!

going to bed. thanks guys. keep this thread alive! archive or sticky maybe