79: Iambic Pentameter
| Iambic Pentameter |
 Title text: Of course, you don't wanna limit yourself to the strict forms of the meter. That could get pretty difficult. |
Explanation
In this entry in the My Hobby series, the hobby is responding to casual questions in iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter (origin Greek) is form of prose based on a number of syllables per line, and the emphasis of those syllables. In iambic pentameter, prose contains exactly five (penta meaning five in Greek) "iambs" per line, an iamb being an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (such as "behind" or "repel", but not "enter" or "over").
The character on the right's responses are each one line of iambic pentameter visually broken into two for space reasons. They read (adding the emphasis):
"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. Shakespeare was one of the most famed users of iambic pentameter in his plays.
This is the "strict form" of iambic pentameter. In practice, poets often strayed from the strict count of iambs as the image text suggests. Wikipedia offers two Shakespearian examples being "Now is the winter of our discontent" in which the first iamb is reversed ("Now" is stressed rather than "is"), and "To be or not to be, that is the question" which adds an extra unstressed syllable at the end. As the comic suggests, without such exceptions, it can be very difficult to stick to strict iambic pentameter for every sentence.
Transcript
Person 1: What time can you pick Michael up?
Person 2: Well, I can meet the plane at ten of six.
Person 1: Do you know where to find him?
Person 2: I'll meet him at the stairs before the gate.
{My hobby: answering casual questions in iambic pentameter.}
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