An Iamb is a type of Foot. A Foot is the basic unit of Accentual-Syllabic meter. Meter basically means structuring a line of poetry in regular and equal units of rhythm. Accentual-Syllabic meter uses both the number of syllables and the location of stressed syllables within a Foot to structure a line. An Iamb is a two-syllable Foot with the stress placed on the 2nd syllable, as in "New York." Notice how the second syllable is stressed more than the first? You can find how words are accented in any dictionary, but it really shouldn't be necessary to go to such trouble; just say them out loud and listen. Often context determines which word or syllable is stressed in a foot, and you need to be aware of how your context might alter the stress in a particular foot. For example, in the sentence "I like your car," car would normally be stressed more than your. However, in "What do you mean your car?" the stress would be placed on your.

A Pentameter is a line of poetry constructed of 5 Feet, or units of rhythm. An Iambic Pentameter then is a line consisting of 5 Iambs, or two syllable Feet with the stress falling on the 2nd syllable of each foot. Or you might say it is a 10-syllable line with the stresses beginning on the 2nd syllable and falling on every other syllable thereafter. Here's an example, the first line of a sonnet by Edmund Spenser:



One day I wrote her name upon the strand,



Read this line aloud, and hopefully the rhythm will be apparent to you. That's Iambic Pentameter! Now was it that bad?

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"I am the olive in your navel because your skin is a shot of gin" - Brandon D. Johnson, poet

"Haiku Revisted
When looking for a word, find it in your heart then release it at once." (c) ASIEM, 4/2/02


Del "Lucy Likka" Rica


AIM: damnacmeissue & delricaa | Blackplanet: changingseasons

http://www.4luvofpoetry.com
http://www.saulwilliams.com

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