Grimes0

But there might be another reason.The next time you're in a heightened emotional situation,like the ones that make Shakespeare's characters burst into verse,put your hand over the left side of your chest.What do you feel?That's your heart beating in iambs.Da duhm, da duhm, da duhm, da duhm, da duhm.Shakespeare's most poetic lines don't justtalk about matters of the heart.They follow its rhythm.

Which leaves just one last question.Why did Shakespeare choose iambic pentameter for these moments,rather than, say, trochaic hexameteror dactylic tetrameter?It's been said that iambic pentameter was easy for his actors to memorizeand for the audience to understandbecause it's naturally suited to the English language.

Of course, most lines of Shakespeare's playsare written in regular prose.But if you read carefully,you'll notice that Shakespeare's characters turn to poetry,and iambic pentameter in particular,for many of the same reasons that we look to poetry in our own lives.Feeling passionate, introspective,or momentous.Whether it's Hamlet pondering his existence,or Romeo professing his love,the characters switch to iambic pentameterwhen speaking about their emotionsand their place in the world.

Now, let's expand that to a sentencethat just happens to be in iambic pentameter.I am a pirate with a wooden leg.The pirate can only walk in iambs,a living reminder of Shakespeare's favorite meter.Iambic pentameter is when he takes ten steps.Our pirate friend can even help us remember how to properly mark itif we image the footprints he leaveswalking along a deserted island beach:A curve for unstressed syllables,and a shoe outline for stressed ones.If music be the food of love, play on.

And it's used for many of Shakespeare's most famous lines:Shall I compare theeto a summer's day?Arise fair sun, and kill the envious moon.Notice how the iambs cut acrossboth punctuation and word separation.Meter is all about sound, not spelling.Iambic pentameter may sound technical,but there's an easy way to remember what it means.The word iamb is pronouncedjust like the phrase, I am.

But with Shakespeare,it's all about the iamb.This two-syllable foot is like a reverse trochee,so the first syllable is unstressedand the second is stressed, as in,To be, or not to be.Shakespeare's favorite meter, in particular, was iambic pentameter,where each line of verseis made up of five two-syllable iambs,for a total of ten syllables.

For example, a dactyl is a metrical foot of three syllableswith the first stressed, and the secondand third unstressed.Dactyls can create linesthat move swiftly and gather force,as in Robert Browning's poem, The Lost Leader.Just for a handful of silver he left us.Just for a rib and to stick in his coat.Another kind of foot is the two-syllable long trochee,a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one.The trochees in these lines from Shakespeare's Macbethlend an ominous and spooky toneto the witches' chant.Double, double, toil and trouble;fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Like songwriters,poets often express their ideas through a recognizable repetition of these rhythmsor poetic meter.And like music,poetry has its own set of terms for describing this.In a line of verse,a foot is a certain number of stressed and unstressed syllablesforming a distinct unit,just as a musical measureconsists of a certain number of beats.One line of verse is usually madeup of several feet.

Not that kind of stress,but the way we emphasize certain syllables in words more than others.We're so used to doing thisthat we may not notice it at first.But if you say the word slowly,you can easily identify them.Playwright, computer, telephone.Poets are very aware of these stresses,having long experimented with the numberand order of stressed and unstressed syllables,and combined them in different waysto create rhythm in their poems.

To someone first encounteringthe works of William Shakespeare,the language may seem strange.But there is a secret to appreciating it.Although he was famous for his plays,Shakespeare was first and foremost a poet.One of the most important things in Shakespeare's languageis his use of stress.

Such male intentions were not limitedto simple pecks on the cheek either.An intentional ambiguity was often usedas a cheeky means to proposition marriageor a more intimate relationship.Therefore, instead of viewing Shakespearean worksas out-dated, boring, and unhelpful,start reading todayand discover the best waysto get the one you loveto love you back.

This is not too different from today's comments like,Hey, beautiful!and, You're the hottest girl in the room.Shakespeare also usesslightly more complex metaphorsto describe the intentions of a mischievous man.For instance,This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this: My lips,two blushing pilgrims,ready stand to smooth that rough touchwith a tender kiss,essentially means, I wish to kiss you.

If you read Romeo and Julietyou'll come across sentences like,She doth teach the torches to burn bright,and, So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows.Both are quite clever metaphors,suggesting that Juliet is both exceptionally beautifuland far moreso than anyone else.For thou art as glorious to this night,being o'er my head,as is a winged messenger of heaven,is a simile suggesting angelic qualitiesof the lady in question.

Words like countlessand assassinationas well as phrases likeone fell swoop,foul play,and even to be in a pickleall originated from William's brilliant brain.And there are many echoes of Shakespeare's romantic language too.

But Shakespearean works are not boring,confusing,long and painful plays written more than 400 years ago.They're adventures relating to the extremitiesof human nature:love,hate,jealousy,zealous ambition,fear,mistrust,deception,and murder.We owe much of our own language to his invention.He invented over 2,000 words for use in his plays,which still remain in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Using the word Shakespeare within any classroom in the 21st century has become almost as dangerous for teachers as putting balloons in a toaster.After uttering this simple word,the common teacher is met with a mass of groans,moans,devastated looks,and the occasional chair tossed in his or her direction.

Using the word Shakespeare within any classroom in the 21st century has become almost as dangerous for teachers as putting balloons in a toaster.After uttering this simple word,the common teacher is met with a mass of groans,moans,devastated looks,and the occasional chair tossed in his or her direction.

Last scene of all,That ends this strange eventful history,Is second childishness and mereoblivion;Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

The sixth age shiftsInto the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;His youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wideFor his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound.

And then the justice,In fair round belly with good capon lin’d,With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,Full of wise saws and modern instances;And so he plays his part.

At first the infant,Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like smail Unwillingly to school.And then the lover,Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress’ eyebrow.Then a soldier,Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon’s mouth.

“All the World’s a Stage”from As You Like It by William ShakespeareAll the world’s a stage,And all the men and women merely players;They have their exits and their entrances;And one man in his time plays many parts,His acts being seven ages.