1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:04,320 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio, 2 00:00:06,360 --> 00:00:11,000 Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff. Lauren Vogelbaum here. If you've ever studied Shakespeare, 3 00:00:11,160 --> 00:00:14,159 Speaker 1: you're probably familiar with or have at least heard of, 4 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:19,160 Speaker 1: iambic pentameter. While the term may sound intimidating, it's just 5 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:22,440 Speaker 1: a rhythm and length of speech that comes pretty naturally 6 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:26,480 Speaker 1: in the English language. Shakespeare used iambic pentameter because that 7 00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:30,680 Speaker 1: natural rhythm replicates how we speak every day, with those 8 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:34,600 Speaker 1: singsong quality. That also makes it easier to memorize and perform, 9 00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:38,440 Speaker 1: especially when it rhymes a little. To begin to understand 10 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:42,640 Speaker 1: iambic pentameter, first consider that there are two basic types 11 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:47,840 Speaker 1: of writing, poetry and prose. Before the article. This episode 12 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:50,400 Speaker 1: is based on how Stuff Work. Spoke with Paul Voss, 13 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,600 Speaker 1: associate professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta, who specializes 14 00:00:54,640 --> 00:00:58,320 Speaker 1: in Renaissance literature and Shakespeare, and to explain the difference. 15 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:02,280 Speaker 1: He said, simply, rows is the language of everyday speech. 16 00:01:03,240 --> 00:01:06,200 Speaker 1: By contrast, poetry often has a type of rhythm or 17 00:01:06,280 --> 00:01:11,280 Speaker 1: beat like a song. This rhythm is called meter. Poems 18 00:01:11,360 --> 00:01:15,160 Speaker 1: also have verses, which are lines or other groupings of 19 00:01:15,160 --> 00:01:18,800 Speaker 1: words in a poem, Definitions for the subtypes of verses 20 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:23,759 Speaker 1: depend on whether they rhyme and have meter. Rhymed versus 21 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:27,240 Speaker 1: both rhyme and have a meter, blank versus don't have 22 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:30,360 Speaker 1: a rhyme but do have a meter, and free verses 23 00:01:30,440 --> 00:01:34,840 Speaker 1: have neither rhyme nor meter. Metered verse is made up 24 00:01:34,840 --> 00:01:39,760 Speaker 1: of units called feet. Each foot will consist of stressed 25 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:43,880 Speaker 1: and unstressed syllables, not stressed as in oh, I have 26 00:01:43,920 --> 00:01:46,680 Speaker 1: a deadline and I'm running behind, but stressed as in 27 00:01:46,959 --> 00:01:52,480 Speaker 1: verbally emphasized or accented. Different types of feet include, for example, 28 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:56,560 Speaker 1: the trophy, which consists of one accented syllable followed by 29 00:01:56,640 --> 00:02:00,360 Speaker 1: one unaccented syllable. You can hear this in ed Girl, Impose, 30 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:05,080 Speaker 1: the raven, and the silken sad uncertain rustling of each 31 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:09,000 Speaker 1: purple curtain. Another type is the dactyl, which is one 32 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:14,240 Speaker 1: accented syllable followed by two unaccented ones. Meanwhile, as spondi 33 00:02:14,400 --> 00:02:18,280 Speaker 1: has two accented syllables, and an I am has one 34 00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:22,880 Speaker 1: unaccented syllable followed by an accented one. But when you 35 00:02:22,919 --> 00:02:25,959 Speaker 1: write a poem in metered verse, you use mostly one 36 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:30,079 Speaker 1: type of foot throughout to create a rhythm. This might 37 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:34,440 Speaker 1: all sound complicated, but languages like English, how these stresses 38 00:02:34,480 --> 00:02:38,760 Speaker 1: built in. Think of how the word is languages not languages. 39 00:02:39,560 --> 00:02:43,880 Speaker 1: The word itself three syllables, one accented and two unaccented, 40 00:02:44,400 --> 00:02:48,960 Speaker 1: is a dactyl. The word carrot, for example, is a tropy, 41 00:02:49,880 --> 00:02:54,320 Speaker 1: and the word describe is an i am a single 42 00:02:54,360 --> 00:02:57,360 Speaker 1: syllable words can fill in for either a stressed or 43 00:02:57,480 --> 00:03:01,600 Speaker 1: unstressed part of a foot, depending on the con text. Okay, 44 00:03:01,639 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 1: so iambic verse is metered verse made up of feet 45 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:10,280 Speaker 1: that are unaccented than accented. But what about the pentameter part. 46 00:03:10,919 --> 00:03:15,720 Speaker 1: The prefect's penta is Greek for five, so pentameter means 47 00:03:15,880 --> 00:03:18,600 Speaker 1: five meter, which means there are going to be five 48 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:22,800 Speaker 1: ft to this meter before the pattern repeats. So a 49 00:03:22,919 --> 00:03:26,520 Speaker 1: line of iambic pentameter has five ft made up of 50 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:30,800 Speaker 1: two syllable sequences that follow an unaccented than accented pattern 51 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:34,600 Speaker 1: for a total of ten syllables in each line. A 52 00:03:34,720 --> 00:03:38,320 Speaker 1: meter can come in different lengths. U trimeter has three 53 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:42,280 Speaker 1: ft per line, haptometer has seven, and the different lengths 54 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:45,960 Speaker 1: can have different effects. In poetry, Voss pointed out that 55 00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:48,680 Speaker 1: the lower the number of feet, the more sing songing. 56 00:03:48,800 --> 00:03:52,480 Speaker 1: A poem will usually sound higher numbers of feet more 57 00:03:52,520 --> 00:03:56,640 Speaker 1: closely mimic colloquial English language speech. I think of Jack 58 00:03:56,640 --> 00:03:59,880 Speaker 1: and Jill, which is in trimitter, versus say, Annabelle Lee, 59 00:04:00,040 --> 00:04:03,560 Speaker 1: which is in heptameter. To identify a type of verse, 60 00:04:03,760 --> 00:04:06,240 Speaker 1: you can count the syllables and look or listen for 61 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:09,320 Speaker 1: where the accents fall, Just to be careful that you 62 00:04:09,320 --> 00:04:12,080 Speaker 1: pronounced the words as the writer intended. In the case 63 00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:15,640 Speaker 1: of Shakespeare, that might mean speaking differently than we do today, 64 00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:18,599 Speaker 1: or even just from region to region. I think British 65 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:23,679 Speaker 1: versus American English, and sometimes the writer sort of cheats by, say, 66 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:28,279 Speaker 1: combining two syllables into one. I think of over versus 67 00:04:28,480 --> 00:04:31,280 Speaker 1: or in that way, it can be a bit of 68 00:04:31,320 --> 00:04:33,599 Speaker 1: a puzzle, but it can also help you find what 69 00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:37,920 Speaker 1: words a poet meant to emphasize. So Shakespeare did write 70 00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:44,640 Speaker 1: overwhelmingly in iambic pentameter. Take famous Sonnet eighteen, Shall I 71 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:47,720 Speaker 1: compare thee to a summer's day? Though are more lovely 72 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:51,080 Speaker 1: and we're temperate? Ref wins do shake the darling buds 73 00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:54,560 Speaker 1: of May? And summer's lease hath all too short a date. 74 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:59,240 Speaker 1: Back in the late thirt hundreds, Jeffrey Chaucer wrote the 75 00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:03,039 Speaker 1: Cannabury Tale in iambic pentameter, and he's sometimes credited with 76 00:05:03,080 --> 00:05:07,560 Speaker 1: inventing it, but it was English playwright and poet Christopher Marlowe, 77 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:11,000 Speaker 1: a contemporary of Shakespeare in the late fifteen hundreds, who 78 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:15,120 Speaker 1: first brought iambic pentameter and blank that is, unrhymed first 79 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:19,360 Speaker 1: to the stage. According to Voss, thanks to Marlowe, iambic 80 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:23,400 Speaker 1: pentameter became the go to rhythm for both tragedy and comedy, 81 00:05:23,720 --> 00:05:28,039 Speaker 1: and Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists are known for it, and 82 00:05:28,120 --> 00:05:32,120 Speaker 1: probably based on Marlowe's influence, Shakespeare chose to have characters 83 00:05:32,240 --> 00:05:35,920 Speaker 1: speak in iambic pentameter, but not all of his characters did. 84 00:05:36,760 --> 00:05:41,360 Speaker 1: Remember that iambic pentameter is more formal sounding, so when 85 00:05:41,400 --> 00:05:45,240 Speaker 1: Shakespeare wanted to show a less educated character or give 86 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:49,839 Speaker 1: the impression of buffoonery, he included limericks and prose as dialogue. 87 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:54,240 Speaker 1: But there are many other examples of iambic pentameter from 88 00:05:54,279 --> 00:05:57,840 Speaker 1: that era. A Pureitan poet and Brad Street used it 89 00:05:57,920 --> 00:06:01,360 Speaker 1: in to My dear and Loving Husband, published in sixteen 90 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:04,480 Speaker 1: seventy eight. If every two were one, then Shirley we 91 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:08,320 Speaker 1: If ever man were loved by wife, then the if 92 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:11,160 Speaker 1: ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, 93 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:14,800 Speaker 1: you women, if you can. But you don't need to 94 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:17,799 Speaker 1: return to the fifteen and sixteen hundreds to find examples 95 00:06:17,839 --> 00:06:22,119 Speaker 1: of iambic pentameter. Owed to Autumn by John Keats, written 96 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:25,760 Speaker 1: in eighteen nineteen, also used this type of verse. To 97 00:06:25,880 --> 00:06:28,760 Speaker 1: swell the gourd and plump the hazel shells with a 98 00:06:28,880 --> 00:06:32,920 Speaker 1: sweet kernel to set budding more and still more later 99 00:06:33,040 --> 00:06:36,160 Speaker 1: flowers for the bees until they think warm days will 100 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:40,080 Speaker 1: never cease for summer has or brimmed their clammy cells. 101 00:06:41,560 --> 00:06:44,880 Speaker 1: Poets a whole century later used it too, like Robert 102 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:48,080 Speaker 1: Frost and his poem After apple Picking from nineteen fourteen, 103 00:06:48,640 --> 00:06:51,279 Speaker 1: though he mixes pentameter with a few lines of other 104 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:55,320 Speaker 1: lengths for a more natural speech sound or for emphasis 105 00:06:55,480 --> 00:06:59,000 Speaker 1: or well, you'd have to ask him. Here's an excerpt. 106 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:02,679 Speaker 1: My instep arch not only keeps the ache, it keeps 107 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:06,000 Speaker 1: the pressure of a ladder round. I feel the ladders sway, 108 00:07:06,160 --> 00:07:08,640 Speaker 1: is the bows bend, and I keep hearing from the 109 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:12,800 Speaker 1: cellar bin, the rumbling sound of load onload of apples 110 00:07:12,800 --> 00:07:18,600 Speaker 1: coming in. But iambic pentameter has largely fallen out of 111 00:07:18,680 --> 00:07:22,600 Speaker 1: use today. The majority of today's fiction is written in prose, 112 00:07:22,800 --> 00:07:26,800 Speaker 1: not verse, and even poetry is often written in prose. 113 00:07:27,880 --> 00:07:31,440 Speaker 1: Vus said, the novel has obliterated almost every other type 114 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:34,920 Speaker 1: of writing. If you are using iambic pentameter today, it's 115 00:07:34,960 --> 00:07:38,720 Speaker 1: almost like using a fountain pen. To be fair, I 116 00:07:38,800 --> 00:07:41,840 Speaker 1: know both publishing poets and people who use fountain pens, 117 00:07:42,360 --> 00:07:46,200 Speaker 1: but the major exception for iambic pentameter seems to be 118 00:07:46,240 --> 00:07:50,120 Speaker 1: in popular music. You can find iambic pentameter in songs 119 00:07:50,200 --> 00:07:59,840 Speaker 1: from the likes of One Direction and Taylor Swift. The 120 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,520 Speaker 1: day's episode is based on the article Shakespeare wrote an 121 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:05,440 Speaker 1: iambic contameter, But what is that? On how stuff Works 122 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:08,520 Speaker 1: dot Com written by Carry Whitney. Brainstuffs production of I 123 00:08:08,560 --> 00:08:10,800 Speaker 1: Heart Radio and partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, 124 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:13,960 Speaker 1: and it's produced by Tyler Clang. For more podcasts my 125 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:17,040 Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 126 00:08:17,120 --> 00:08:19,000 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.