What is iambic pentameter?

What is iambic pentameter?

• A. A line with six trochees.
• B. A line with alternating meter of spondees and pyrrhics.
• C. A line with five iambs (unstressed-stressed).
• D. A rhymed couplet in Shakespearean style.

Answer: (C)

Think of it as a rhythm built from five iambs, where an iamb is a pair of syllables with the second syllable stressed. So a line in iambic pentameter has ten syllables total, arranged as unstressed–stressed, five times in a row. That steady, rising beat is the hallmark of this meter and is a hallmark of a lot of classical English poetry, including Shakespeare. That’s why the defining description is a line with five iambs (unstressed-stressed). The other options describe different rhythms or structures—six feet would be hexameter, a line of trochees would flip the stress pattern to stressed–unstressed, and a rhymed couplet speaks to rhyme rather than the metrical pattern.

Think of it as a rhythm built from five iambs, where an iamb is a pair of syllables with the second syllable stressed. So a line in iambic pentameter has ten syllables total, arranged as unstressed–stressed, five times in a row. That steady, rising beat is the hallmark of this meter and is a hallmark of a lot of classical English poetry, including Shakespeare. That’s why the defining description is a line with five iambs (unstressed-stressed). The other options describe different rhythms or structures—six feet would be hexameter, a line of trochees would flip the stress pattern to stressed–unstressed, and a rhymed couplet speaks to rhyme rather than the metrical pattern.