![]() Two notes: first, in the second line, if a reader is speaking in pentameter, the odds that they correctly pronounce the word “surfeiting” will be much higher than when they are speaking in prose. Stealing and giving odour! Enough no more: O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound, Or, in notation: ˘ ʹ ˘ ʹ ˘ ʹ ˘ ʹ ˘ ʹ An example from “Twelfth Night”Ī great example of almost perfect or “regular” iambic pentameter comes from Duke Orsino’s famous lines at the opening of Twelfth Night: (Usually if there aren’t exactly 10 syllables, there are 11, sometimes 12 it’s rare to find fewer than 10 syllables in a line of pentameter.)įor Shakespeare, the pattern typically is: unstressed stressed unstressed stressed unstressed stressed unstressed stressed unstressed stressed If the line is irregular, there may be fewer or more syllables. If the meter of the line is regular, it will have 5 iambic feet, with 10 syllables in total. The rhythm in which they read should follow the pattern of a heartbeat, or dun DUN dun DUN dun DUN dun DUN dun DUN. (You can also do the same exercise with other poets, although their meter may be different Frost, for example, is great for looking at verse!) Whoever is scanning the text should read a single line of verse to himself or herself either in exaggerated pentameter, either silently or out-loud. We believe that the easiest way to learn about meter is by “scanning” a doubled-spaced scene, monologue, or sonnet with a pencil yourself. There are so many wonderful resources about the nuts and bolts of scansion on the internet already that we’ll keep this section relatively brief. More on that in just a few paragraphs! How to scan a text Of course, not all of Shakespeare’s work is written in meter, and much of his metered text contains irregularities, but the irregularities themselves are also instructive. At the very least you’ll end up with a lot of great clues and interesting questions! Even the correct pronunciation of words becomes clearer! As a reader, you can also feel much more confident in your understanding and interpretation of the text after you’ve scanned it scansion removes much, though not all, of guesswork from the process of interpretation. What I mean by that is when the correct syllables are accented, the meaning of an expression shines through organically. ![]() Interestingly, iambic pentameter has a fixed pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables, and these natural stresses of the meter actually do a lot of the heavy lifting of interpretation for the reader. When a reader goes through and identifies the stressed and unstressed syllables, they are “scanning” the text or participating in the process of “scansion.” Each line of ten syllables has five metrical “feet,” and each “foot” has two syllables. ![]() What exactly do you mean by ‘meter’ and how is learning about it helpful?Īll of Shakespeare’s sonnets and many of his plays are written in what’s called “iambic pentameter,” meaning that these texts are written in rhythmic lines with ten syllables of text in each line (typically, anyway). Ultimately, we hope you’ll find that it’s actually much easier to read verse in meter than not to do so. When Shakespeare’s text is spoken in proper meter, it flows beautifully and the speaker sounds far more fluent, even if nothing else in their relationship to the text has changed. ![]() And as with English grammar or organic chemistry, a lot of people would probably prefer to go their entire lives without ever learning about it or encountering it “in the wild.” However, I personally am a strong advocate of the idea that being familiar with meter makes reading Shakespeare much more accessible. Even just a little bit of meter work will further your understanding of the entire text and make you a better, more engaged reader overall! Why read in meter?įor most people, reading and/or teaching Shakespeare is daunting enough without discussion of meter. We’re also hoping to give you some ideas as to how you can easily begin doing your own scansion (metrical analysis). Our primary aim in this post is to give you a sense of how reading Shakespeare in meter can enrich your experience of his plays. There was just too much we wanted to say! (If you missed them earlier, be sure to catch up on Part I and Part II of introducing new readers to Shakespeare.) After writing two other posts on Shakespeare, we realized that we simply needed to dedicate an entire post to a discussion of reading Shakespeare in meter.
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