In honor of his birth, the blog requests
That comments on this thread should be composed
In iambs, five per line — in other words,
Pentameter. (Don’t be afraid. It’s not
That hard. We’ll give some helpful hints below.)
An iamb is a pair of syllables,
One soft, one loud. It goes like this: ta-DAH!
Iambic words include po-LICE, ar-REST,
en-JOY, de-LIGHT, pa-RADE, a-LAS — got it?
Pentameter (pronounced “pen-TA-muh-tur”)
Means five of them are stuck together, thus:
Ta-DAH, ta-DAH, ta-DAH, ta-DAH, ta-DAH.
“De-NY thy FA-ther AND re-FUSE thy NAME,
Or IF thou WILT not, BE but SWORN my LOVE,
And I’LL no LONG-er BE a CAP-u-LET.”
(In practice, you’re allowed a little grace
To fudge the stresses. Some of Juliet’s
Strong “DAHs” are really weak. But that’s okay,
As long as all the syllables add up.)
An iamb, note, is not to be confused
With “DAH-da.” That’s a trochee. Trochees go
Like “CRU-el GA-pas TOR-ture BLOG-gers.” See?
Give it a try. It’s really not so hard,
Especially to anyone who has
An ear for music. Happy birthday, Will!
This is also William’s death date too.
ah whoops.
I AM bored CAUSE muse BLOG is SLOW
and MY moDEM is BREAKING the FLOW
this RHYME thing IS verY annOYING
I HOPE the GAPAs aren’t TOYING
with US helpless MUSEbloggers SO.
Howzat?
It doesn’t have to rhyme. It only has
To scan (that means the meter has to work).
The meter of your second post was, well,
To tell the truth, atrocious. Iambs? Nope.
Pentameter? Not even close. Give it
Another try. First say the words. And COUNT.
Phoo.
Dang.
How’s
this,
Rob?
You still don’t seem to get it, I’m afraid.
Ten syllables per line. Just count them off,
Two syllables per finger. That might help.
Now I get it, 10 syllables was not
clarified, unfortunantly. But it’s
still hard to do. And does it have to have
5 lines? That seems a bit strict, I think.
But whatever. The GAPA’s rule MuseBlog!
Much better! Write however many lines
You need to. (I wrote three last time around.)
Although I didn’t say “ten syllables,”
I did say iambs have two syllables
Apiece, and you need five of them per line.
So, five times two makes ten. You see? Ta-DAH!
I’ll tweak your post a tad to make it scan:
“I get it now. Ten syllables was not
Made clear, unfortunately. But it is
Still hard to do. And does it have to have
Five lines? That seems a little strict, I think.
Whatever. You darned GAPAs rule MuseBlog.”
Simplicity will be forsaken here.
(The first line was written by my mother.)
In my words, this is going to be hard.
I hope William Shakespeare would have liked
It, and he does not turn in his grave now.
There ’tis. Does it strike joy into your hearts?
Hallelujah! Someone else on the blog!
William Shakespear shakes pears. At least I think
he does. Does anybody out there know?
No, I don’t know. It makes sense though, it does.
Do I have to write two lines, and not one?
I’m glad these needn’t rhyme. That would be sad.
Wherefore do we embrace conformity,
When on our own, we have ability
To write things that have not yet seen the light
Of day or made somebody’s eyes glow bright
From reading something never read before.
And, so, why should we go straight to the core
Of olden thoughts and ways, when with the New
Age we can run, past those who think to do
Again what has been done, and brace against
The wind of ages. Fly over that fence!
Do you like it?
Ah, rhymes! Nice feature, that. You’ve got a knack.
Alerted by the sharp repeated cry
I found him in a compost heap, a puff
of white, all voice and fur, abandoned there.
The mother cat could not be coaxed to take
him back. It fell to me to bottle feed
the ravenous, demanding wisp dubbed Swab,
by careful computation born the same
(and equally uncertain) day we note
by custom as the birthday of the Bard,
four hundred thirty-three the years between.
Now ten years old, the former kitten yawns
and celebrates by sleeping in the sun.
Excuse the double posting but I must
Remark upon the subtle verse of post
eleven. w00t! All yayness thee attend
O kat of shadows! Overtake thy fence!
Enough poetry, I have had my fill
For now. Besides, I only ever read half of
The Tempest. I’m hardly qualified to
Write an ode to William Shakespeare. But
I like his language, even though it’s hard
To understand, when you slip into thinking
In it, it is wonderful, beautiful.
(13),
I think we need a picture of your Swab.
(15),
Enough? Of poetry? Impossible!
Nell mezzo del cammin di nostra vita,
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
la cui dritta via era smarrita.
How come when I’m in class I go over Shakespeare, but I come here and see Shakespeare celebrated I recite Dante?
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate.
A veRY haPPY birthDAY wilLIAM, a veRy
haPPY birthDAY to you, haVE a haPPY birthDAY!
yeS I knOW thAT some of thOSE woRDS
do noT reaLLY haVE two syllyBALS, but I doNT
caRE that muCH, thEY do if yoU sAY
thEM wITH the riGHT accENT. sEE?
18: Dante really is good, it’s a shame school ruins it for you. Once I used to know all 25 first verses by heart.
(19)
Hm. Maybe you should look up “syllable.”
what, on google? here goes…
Can’t find anything.
Oh, sorry. That was meant for Lady M.
The comment had to do with Post 19.
I’ll add a number so she’ll know what’ s up.
16-
Obviously I haven’t had enough,
Since I come back for more. And more. And more.
I will go one better than merely writing
in verse on this thread. I will write in verse on
ALL the threads. Except Round Robin Writing.
E nella notte nera come il nulla,
a un tratto, col fragor d’arduo dirupo
che frana, il tuono rimbombò di schianto:
rimbombò, rimbalzò, rotolò cupo,
e tacque, e poi rimareggiò rinfranto,
e poi vanì. Soave allora un canto
s’udì di madre, e il moto di una culla.
San Lorenzo, io lo so perché tanto
di stelle per l’aria tranquilla
arde e cade, perché si gran pianto
nel concavo cielo sfavilla.
Ritornava una rondine al tetto:
l’uccisero: cadde tra i spini;
ella aveva nel becco un insetto:
la cena dei suoi rondinini.
Ora è là , come in croce, che tende
quel verme a quel cielo lontano;
e il suo nido è nell’ombra, che attende,
che pigola sempre più piano.
Anche un uomo tornava al suo nido:
l’uccisero: disse: Perdono;
e restò negli aperti occhi un grido:
portava due bambole in dono.
Ora là , nella casa romita,
lo aspettano, aspettano in vano:
egli immobile, attonito, addita
le bambole al cielo lontano.
E tu, Cielo, dall’alto dei mondi
sereni, infinito, immortale,
oh! d’un pianto di stelle lo inondi
quest’atomo opaco del Male!
Whoever knows these gets a laurel.
Oh, my. Another thread for
This momentous date
Pentameter Iambs
Are rather fun to
write with on the blog.
(Otzi is sorryfor her woeful verse;
The room is loud, and her head hurts)
Oops, I broke my resolve. I posted on
Ships Logs in normal speech. I am fully
Repentant. I’m sorry. How do I fill this-
There! I am done. Not anymore. Darn it!
I cannot count on my fingers and type
at the same time. William Shakespeare, I
do not quite understand the iambs. So
I will just keep using ten syllables.
*temporarily switches back into ordinary prose*
Iambs aren’t hard to understand. Just by saying a word, you can tell that some syllables have stronger stresses than others, usually indicated in English by being slightly louder and/or higher in pitch. When you say “Koko,” for example, you say “KO-ko,” not “ko-KO” (accent or stress on the first syllable). When you say “Kokopelli,” the main stress is on the “PEL” (third syllable) There’s also a less-strong stress on the first “Ko”; the second and last syllables (ko and li) are unstressed: ko-ko-PEL-li.
Iambic meter just means sentences in which those stresses alternate, starting with an unstressed syllable: soft-HARD-soft-HARD-soft-HARD-soft-HARD-soft-HARD (or down-UP-down-UP-down-UP-down-UP-down-UP). There’s usually a little irregularity, but not enough to make the pattern fall apart.
Your first sentence starts out iambic (i CAN not COUNT), but it doesn’t stay way: “i CAN not COUNT on my FING ers and TYPE” — see all those double-unstressed syllables? The others aren’t iambic, either:
at the SAME TIME. WILL-iam SHAKE-speare, i
do not QUITE un-der-STAND the I-ambs. So
I will JUST KEEP U-sing TEN SYL-lables.
See all those bunched-up hards and softs? Not iambic. But you could rearrange and rephrase them to make them work better:
i CAN-not TYPE while COUNT-ing on my HANDS [“on” is iffy, but it falls into place because the rest of the line alternates]
Starting to get it now? Look back at my previous posts:
i THINK we NEED a PIC-ture of your SWAB.
Shadowkat and Rebecca are good at iambs, too.
Cannot write in iambs. It’s too hard. Bleh.
Did you know that in Shakespeare’s time, England still used the Julian calendar; so technically April 23 for us is not at the same time as it would be for him.
I’m going to his birthday party at the Folger this sunday. Anyone’s class doing anything? (We sang happy birthday in my english class)
“I cannot write in iambs. It’s too hard” is a perfect iambic sentence.
I cannot really hear iambs but I’ll try
to write in ten syllables per line and
hope the iamb part is right too. you know?
I cannot write iambs. It’s very hard.
I did it! I think.
i CANnot WRITE iAMBS. it’s VERy HARD.
Is that right?
I can hear iambs now but still they
are hard to type. I like your poem Shadow
cat. Knowing that I can in iambs, write.
(sort of)
My iambs I use only to annoy
some certain people, sonnets that I write
and email (or I would, if I could type
and cared, and if it mattered, anyway…)
they’re saying “Check your email now! Please write! ”
‘Tis pointless, yet I waste my time on it.
Enjoyable the iamb, and the pent-
Ameter, such that I will write in it
This day, now that I know of Shakespeare’s birth
Apologies for when I mess it up.
My post above was NOT copying. Just thought I should make that clear.
26- Giovanni Pascoli, Myricae. I cheated; google.
30- How do you know for a one-syllable word?
*resumes iambic pentameter*
Rebecca sent these pictures of her cat:
He’s reading Shakespeare’s play Henry the Fifth.
I think that he is cute. I love all cats.
I DON’T un-DER-stand
Wow, in the first picture he looks really interested, and in the second, well, we all get tired once and a while!
HAppy birthday TO you William SHAkespeare wait did I get that right or am I just looking dumb
I am a pierate with a wooden leg
my wooden leg is made of solid oak
ironicaly I have a wife named peg
but please don’t laugh because it’s not a joke
that was a poem my english teacher made
he uses it to teach us how to write
in blank verse,as it can be called
It was not long ago, that I was in
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and way back then,
I was but young and foolish in that time,
Not knowing about iambs or the rhyme
Put in that rhythm. And now I know about
It, and must say, iambs I’m not without.
Not my best, but it’s tricky.
Iambic pentameter? Wow, that’s cool.
So Shakespeare did THIS a whole lot? Nice work.
Big omg, this really is hard. I can’t do
this all day! Will had it hard. *dies* Really.
41 [grr, forgot a word]
-in blank verse as it also can be called
Oh dear- all those posts were not up yet when
I posted number forty- six, I meant
for it to respond to my own, the post
that is now numbered forty- three instead
I second the request made by he who
apparently likes ‘taters in a bag.
I’m almost sure I’ve got this down; but can
a person, more skilled I am, please tell:
Are single syllable words similar
to freebies, counting as stressed or not stressed–
whichever is appropriate at the
place they inhabit, yes? No? Maybe so?
They’re flexible–depends on how you speak.
For instance, “a” and “the” are seldom stressed
(Although I stressed them there, for emphasis).
I remember last year we did this
It was fun, oh yes, yea, very fun.
We had to memorize this for my class:
“Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?
What tributaries follow him to Rome,
To grace in captive bonds his chariot-wheels?
You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!
O you hard hearts, you cruel men of Rome,
Knew you not Pompey? Many a time and oft
Have you climb’d up to walls and battlements,
To towers and windows, yea, to chimney-tops,
Your infants in your arms, and there have sat
The livelong day, with patient expectation,
To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome”
Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare, yay, yay!
Do we want to talk about Edward de
Vere and if he was Shakespeare himself?
Dr. Suess also uses (erm- used) iambs with
the pentameter thing. Apologies
For my lack of rythym. Oh, now I’m done.
Well. I think I lost it there.
wrote a horrid Shakespearian sonnet
in class, i did. twas extremely bad
yes, iambic pentameter is not easy. heh.
I have never done this before tonight.
I am sure my stresses are all wrong here.
I had an argument with Sarah. It
was about Romeo and Juliet.
I was right, of course. She’s never read it.
I haven’t either but I plan to and
I know what happens. I think she should too.
Although, she’s never seen Shakespeare in Love.
A lot of what I know is from that film.
I ignored the stresses entirely.
Sorry. Syllables are enough for me.
I will have to practice for next April.
At least I think I can hear iambs now.
My mother seems to disapprove that I
have given up writing in iambic
pentameter. Sigh. It is truly hard.
I love how we can stay on topic
in the thread which I read. The Photographs
of the cat of Lady Bunniful Yay!
(51),
I think Dr. Seuss was fonder of iambic tetrameter, e.g.,
“I do not like green eggs and ham.
I do not like them, Sam-I-Am.”
POSTer FORty-EIGHT, you MUST have meant SHE.
NOT that it MATters, i MUST go to BED.
Far from perfect. I have double unstressed
syllables. I think I understand it
now. And I wrote lowercase I so it
would appear unstressed. Also, from reading
the thread description, we can’t use “trochees”?
That means nothing I did above is right.
Oh well. I only used syllables here.
im not good at this!!!! somebody help me!!!
eeeeewwwwww, I don’t really like poetry, some is ok, but alot of it is really confusing. I like it if it rhymes and/or tells a story in plain wording so I understand. I know how some people really like it, and I would too if it weren’t for the crappy stuff my teachers all give me
21- If you say it in a fake italian accent it works fine. Like this:
a ve-REE ha-PEE birth-DAY will-EEUMM, a ve-REE
ha-PEE birth-DAY to you, ha-AV a ha-PEE birth-DAY
yeah-ESS, I nu-OH tha-AT some of thoe-OSE wu-ORDS
do no-OT ree-EELY ha-AV two silly-BULLS but i du-OWNT
ca-AIR that mu-UCH, thae-AY do if you-EW sae-AY
the-EM wi-ITH the rye-TU ack-SENT. sea-EE?
I-REAL ly- LIKE my- COWS a- LOT the -END
that one works…
I-DON”T like-HOME work-AT all-SO there,-SCHOOL
but-I’M still-GOing-TO do-IT be-CAUSE
I-HAVE to- I don’t-LIKE it-IT”S not-COOL
there, I CAN write in this pentameter thing, I think we’re going to learn about it next week in english, too