Literary Analysis: Blank Verse
Practice
Blank verse is unrhymed poetry with a regular me
in a regular meter, or pattern of beats. A
line of blank verse follows these rules:
It has five pairs of syllables called feet. Each foot is an iamb. An iamb
consists of one unstressed syllable follower
followed by a stressed syllable. In
these examples, the stressed syllables
bies are in capital letters with stress
marks above them.
OCTOber WAS a MONTH of WIND and RAIN.
Together the five iambic feet in the line of blank verse are called lambic
pentameter. Notice in the preceding example that each of the five
stressed syllables follows an unstressed syllable.
Shakespeare often uses prose and verse to show the social rank of the
characters. Aristocratic or high-born characters usually speak in blank verse.
Minor, low-born, or comic characters do not speak in verse. They speak in pros
A
In each of the following lines of blank verse, use stress marks ( /) to indicate the stressed
syllables. The first item has been done for you.
1. And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey wall
2. When you are young, your life is full of fun.
3. The clock struck nine when I did send the nurse.
4. She rests at ease beneath some shady tree.
B
Circle Hif the speaker is "high-born" or Lif "low-born." Explain your answer.
As I told you, my young lady bid me inquire you out. What she bid me
say, I will keep to myself; but first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her in a
fool's paradise, it were a very gross kind of behavior, as they say.
H
/L
204 Reading Kit
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