Iambic Pentameter
by submission
Image text: Of course, you don't wanna limit yourself to the strict forms of the meter. That could get pretty difficult.
This comic provided by Rik 't Hoff. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=516678350
Iambic Pentameter (origin Greece) is an art of composing prose common to the much more known Haiku. In spite of Haiku, the simple rule of Iambic Pentameter is that you write no more, no less than five (penta means five in Greek) syllables per line of text. Cueball's hobby is speaking in this prose, hence, he uses five syllables per line in the above comic. The image text warns you that answering every question by using this art form can become difficult.
Therefore, I did not.
I mean, try it here.
You know, it is hard.
Explaining all things.
January 3rd, 2012
It’s not five syllables per line of text. It’s five iambs per line, an iamb being an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. The responses given in the comic are each one line visually broken into two for space reasons.
January 5th, 2012
Correct; as an example of how they are read, the lines could be written:
“well I can MEET the PLANE at TEN of SIX” and
“I’ll MEET him AT the STAIRS beFORE the GATE”
With a sort of bouncing rhythm.
As you can see, the strict form COULD get difficult, because it’s not simply counting syllables, but also pairing them by emphasis.
Thus,
“I WILL meet HIM at THE stairs NEAR the GATE.” woudl not work, because emphasis on “will”, “him”, and “the” simply sounds wrong, as those are the wrong syllables to emphasize. Whereas “So I will MEET him SOMEwhere NEAR the STAIRS” works.
I hope I have explained this comic right.
I do admit I might have got it wrong.
I don’t get paid to do this anyhow.
So don’t make a complaint about this post.
January 5th, 2012
Robert J. Lurtsema told me, some days he would do this – resolve to speak only in iambic pentameter.
(and wait for some one to catch on to him) <– 5 iambs
(the pauses to compose were sometimes awk-) <– dang, almost made it! (-ward.)
*true story
January 6th, 2012
Actually the best known origin is Latin (who often used blocks of 10 syllables), the term is simply derived from Greek words, the explanation needs to be completely re-written. The form is not less well known than the haiku, it is simply less popular at the moment, almost all major western poetry of the past 300 years is centered around iambic pentameter, just because a fad (the Haiku) is a better known term at the moment… anywho I feel reference to the Haiku complicates the explanation, the already mentioned correction to the ordering of syllables is there and the explanation of the image text is really just a repetition, an explanation should reference the idea of the spondee, trochee or pyrrhus or maybe the feminine ending. (in order; two stressed, the reverse of the iamb, two unstressed, and an additional unstressed note at the end of the line)
January 6th, 2012
Iambic Pentameter is most widely remembered for being the meter used by William Shakespeare.
And yes, the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables is key: that’s the ‘Iambic’ part.
It’s almost impossible to do it perfectly all the time, however, even when simply writing it and not having to come up with it on the fly. Even in Shakespeare, there are plenty of examples where it was briefly broken.
January 10th, 2012
Due to the the choice of words in the image text I think the phrase should also be read in iambic pentameter (without limiting yourself to the strict forms of the meter of course).
Of course, you don’t wanna limit yourself – 5 iambs
to the strict forms of the meter. – 4 iambs
That could get pretty difficult. – 4 iambs
January 12th, 2012
Except that these aren’t iambs. Iambs stress the 2nd syllable.
You’d have to read it as
of COURSE, you DON’T waNNA liMIT yourSELF
to THE strict FORMS of THE meTER
that COULD get PREtty DIffiCULT
the second line doesn’t really work; the second half of the first line doesn’t work wekk either.
April 20th, 2012
Also it’s only etymologically Greek. The Greeks used dactylic hexameter for most poetry. Iambic pentameter is traditional for English poetry.