Prose

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Prose Verse
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The Bard was famous for his writing skills

• He wrote in two different styles

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Verse

• The first style would be for all the important
  characters. They would speak in verse. This
  would make the heroes more heroic, the baddies
  more evil and royalty more regal. He didn't have
  close-ups, or cool music. He used verse!

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Verse

• A poem or piece of poetry
• A succession of metrical feet written, printed,
  or orally composed as one line one of the lines
  of a poem.
• Literature in metrical form

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• Shakespeare's plays are written in verse. This
  is poetry. Most of it doesn't rhyme. But why
  bother? If you are dealing with massive events
  or serious emotions, you need a structure that
  allows you to sound serious. For instance, in
  the film 'Gladiator', at the beginning they are
  preparing for a massive battle. The hero is
  talking to his soldiers and says
• "What you do in life echoes through eternity!"

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• That is inspirational, heroic and poetic. If he
  had said ...
• "Okay, lads I want you to be very brave and fight
  well, because then you'll be famous heroes one
  day!" ...
• it doesn't have quite the same ring to it. Not
  inspirational, not heroic and definitely not
  poetic. Shakespeare uses poetry to inspire us,
  not put us off, and to make his characters almost
  larger than life. Bigger heroes, greater lovers,
  yet still human.

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Prose

• The second style would be for everyone else,
  particularly if they are funny. This would be
  prose. It is easier to be funnier in prose than
  in verse. This is not to say that all the rich
  characters speak in verse and all the poor people
  speak in prose. That is not always true.

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Prose

• Writing that resembles every day speech.
• Lacks structure
• In Shakespeares plays, many of his poorer or
  lower class characters spoke in prose.

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Blank Verse

• a type of poetry, distinguished by having a
  regular meter, but no rhyme. In English, the
  meter most commonly used with blank verse has
  been iambic pentameter.
• It is comprised of unrhymed lines all in the same
  meter, usually iambic pentameter. It was
  developed in Italy and became widely used during
  the Renaissance because it resembled classical,
  unrhymed poetry.

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Iambic Pentameter

• Iambic pentameter is a type of meter that is
  used in poetry and drama. It describes a
  particular rhythm that the words establish in
  each line. That rhythm is measured in small
  groups of syllables these small groups of
  syllables are called 'feet'. The word 'iambic'
  describes the type of foot that is used. The word
  'pentameter' indicates that a line has five of
  these 'feet'. -Wikipedia

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Definitions

• Penta- Means five
• Meter- to measure
• Pentameter- Something measured in sets of five!

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Example

• If a pair of syllables are arranged in a short
  followed by a long, or an unstressed followed by
  a stressed, pattern, that foot is said to be
  'iambic'. The English word 'trapeze' is an
  example of an iambic pair of syllables, since the
  word is made up of two syllables ("trapeze") and
  is pronounced with the stress on the second
  syllable ("traPEZE", rather than "TRApeze").
  Wikipedia

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Cont.

• 'Iambic pentameter', then, is a line made up of
  five pairs of short/long, or unstressed/stressed,
  syllables. If the short/long or
  unstressed/stressed pattern were to be reversed,
  producing a line of five pairs of long/short, or
  stressed/unstressed pairs, that line would be
  described as an example of trochaic pentameter. A
  trochee (DUMde) is the opposite of an iamb
  (deDUM).

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Examples

• Two households, both alike in dignity In fair
  Verona where we lay our scene
• O she doth teach the torches to burn bright
• But soft what light through yonder window
  breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!

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What do they have in common?

• Each line has ten syllables!!!!!

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Review!

• So you have lines that each have ten syllables,
  and you're describing the style by saying
  "something involving measuring by sets of five."
  Well, ten divided by two is five, right?
• Sometimes you have to split it right on a word,
  but hopefully you know what I mean. So now you
  have five sets of two syllables -- pentameter!

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One More Thing

• Now read them aloud one more time, and put a
  little emphasis on the second syllable. You don't
  have to over annunciate it, but try it out loud
  and you'll hopefully get the feeling for it. If
  it sounds silly, just do it for the first two
  syllables, and what will happen is you'll hear
  the rhythm in your head for the rest of the line
  even if you don't say it out loud.

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Here we go!

• Two HOUSEholds, BOTH aLIKE in DIGniTY
• o SHE doth TEACH the TORches TO burn BRIGHT
• but SOFT what LIGHT through YONder WINdow BREAKS?

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Do you get it?

• Now is the time when I tell you that an "iamb" is
  two syllables where the second one is emphasized.
  
• Get it?
• You were just reading five sets of two syllables
  where the second syllable is emphasized. Iambic
  pentameter!

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Stop and think!

• If the lines are in iambic pentameter (and many
  of the most famous ones are), you can expect ten
  syllables. They arranged so that you can put an
  emphasis on every other syllable and have it
  still sound right.

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Try This

• Look what light through yonder window breaks?

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Try putting it into the pattern that we know

• look WHAT light THROUGH yonDER winDOW breaks...

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It does not fit because it is WRONG

• Not only aren't there enough syllables, you just
  don't sound right where you're putting the
  emphasis. It's off by one syllable, actually.

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Did you know all of Wills sonnets are written in
this style?

• Twelve lines of alternating rhyming scheme
  (sometimes called ABAB, you'll see) followed by a
  "rhyming couplet" at the end.
• We will study a famous sonnet in class!

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Are you excited?
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Sources

• 1.Wikipedia, 2.uni.edu/gotera/CraftOfPoetry/blank
  verse.html,
• 3. Morinfamily.com