Another informative & entertaining video. You have a gift for teaching (I believe you could make a lecture on grass growing fun). I am currently obsessed with iambic pentameter, but when I read aloud a poem in that style, I consciously count the syllables and even with Shakespeare, I count some lines with 9 or 11 syllables, now it could be my Boston accent adding or subtracting syllables; but is this common, that not all iambic pentameter poems must contain 10 syllables per line? Looking forward to your future lectures Frank Seringa
9 syllable lines could be “headless” lines: lines that omit the opening offbeat. DUM-di-DUM-di-DUM-di-DUM-di-DUM 11 syllable lines probably contain what is traditionally known as a “feminine ending”, though I call it a “tail”: an extra unstressed syllable at the end of the line. di-DUM-di-DUM-di-DUM-di-DUM-di-DUM-di You’re better off counting the beats rather than the syllables. It’s a lot easier!
Hi both - yes, what Keir said! This is one of the aspects of metre I didn't get into too deeply in the interest of keeping the workshop concise, but yes - the poet may add or subtract syllables to the beginning or end of lines. Keir is right that a good strategy is to count the stresses rather than counting the syllables. And it's important to note that it's actually quite rare to find poems that are in flawless iambic pentameter - poets often slightly vary metre, either for stylistic effect (i.e. my tiger in the woods example) or to keep the piece from feeling rigid - or they're simply not fussed about metric perfection. Hope that's helpful! Thanks to you both for engaging with the workshop! - Katie
@@IAmLoudPro of course, technically, it can be important to distinguish between stresses and beats! For instance… RICH *GIFTS* WAX *POOR* when *GI*vers *PROVE* un*KIND* …has 7 stresses but only 5 beats! Another fairly common variation in Shakespeare’s plays (as Frank mentioned Shakespeare) that can trip people up is the “epic caesura”: the mid-line tail. For instance, a line with a 3rd foot epic caesura might look like this: di-DUM-di-DUM-di-DUM-di, di-DUM-di-DUM And BY oPPOsing END them. To DIE, to SLEEP, It’s an extra unstressed syllable before a break in the line, which creates a rhythmic disruption (and then a resumption of the iambic rhythm *after* the break): versemeter.wordpress.com/2016/09/20/iambic-pentameter-the-principles-of-metrical-variation-part-1-feminine-endings-simple-variations/ This is a whole extra layer of complexity, so I can understand why you didn’t include this, but there is an inbuilt flexibility to iambic meter, i.e. variations to the iambic rhythm that are not traditionally considered flaws. Under certain conditions a beat can be either pulled back or pumped forward. I explain the technical principles in one of the links in this post: www.quora.com/How-do-you-use-2-syllable-words-in-iambic-pentameter/answer/Keir-Fabian?ch=99&oid=305732233&share=1ce26406&srid=LqSx&target_type=answer My own impulse was to read two lines of the sonnet you shared as containing a displaced beat. If the 1st beat of the second line is pulled back, the line reads: WE are a RO | lling WAVE | aPPROA | ching LAND And if the 4th beat of the tenth line is pumped forward, it reads: FOUND *FLOT* | sam *DRIF* | ting, *SCRI* | bble your *LOST DREAMS*
