In Shakespeare's hands the basic verse line of iambic pentameter (that is, five units, or feet, in which an unstresssed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable: see verse and prose) is capable of producing great variety and subtlety of effect. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is called blank verse. In his early plays the blank verse tends to be more regular than it is in his later plays, where his rhythms are often very flexible. Here's a line that scans as regular blank verse: "The course of true love never did run smooth" (MND, 1.1.134). But your scansion (that is, your analysis of the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables, or metre) will depend on your dramatic interpretation of the line; conversely, your dramatic interpretation may be affected by your scansion. In the line above, do you want the dramatic stress to fall on "love" or "true love"? Try reading it both ways, and see how the rhythm gives clues to meaning.
Here are some important variations and additions. An extra unstressed syllable at the end of a line produces what's technically called a feminine ending. Here's an example from a rhymed context (rather than blank verse): "Like to the lark at break of day a ris ing" (Sonnet 29, l. 11). The line immediately preceding it has a light pause, which is technically called a caesura, after the third stressed syllable: "Haply I think on thee, // and then my state." (Notice too that the first word in the line varies the iambic pattern: "haply" is a made up of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable -- just say it to hear it. We call that pattern of stressed followed by unstressed a trochee.) By contrast with line 10, there is no caesura in line 11, and the feminine ending makes the line run on into line 12, where it pauses briefly before completing its magnificent sweep. Say it out loud to hear how the arrangement of feminine ending, caesura, and run-on line seems to enact, like the lark it describes, a movement from emotional low to emotional high:
Haply I think of thee, and them my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate.
|
|
|
|