So this going to be one of my intellectual posts. (Ho hum.)
Let’s talk about iambic pentameter.
Now to refresh your minds, since I’m sure many of you might have forgotten what iambic pentameter is from your school days (I can’t remember anything prior to 1990 so if you’re older than me there’s a good chance you can’t even remember your name) I shall refresh your memory with an explanation taken straight from a dictionary rather than using my own explanation because my own garbled definition would probably make you wonder if I have any brain cells left.
So, accordingly, this is the explanation from the Oxford Dictionary:
A line of verse with five metrical feet, each consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable.
Yep, makes no sense to me either. Thirty years ago I think it did. Although, frankly, at school, I was a bit of blagger back then too and had an uncanny ability to sound like I knew what I was talking about when in fact I had absolutely no idea. This was probably because I read a lot and knew lots of big words thus pulling over the wool over many of my teacher’s eyes. Unfortuantely, that didn’t work well in Maths where big words can’t replace numbers. Although I think I tried a few times. Unfortunately, the answer “Gobbledygook” doesn’t impress most maths teachers who usually have some type of personality disorder.
Who other than a maths teacher would snort with laughter when you put down 2X for an answer instead of 2Y?
So back to iambic pentameter. Basically, it’s quality prose or poetry that sounds really good and trips off the tongue. The best way to appreciate it is to read or listen to some of the best or most famous pieces. Like these pieces from master craftsmen, William Shakespeare:
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Richard III
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date
If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
‘Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
Jason is very cool
Even though he is bald
Sometimes he wears a flat cap
Jason has a big gun
His aim is accurate
He doesn’t have to lift the toilet seat
Jason and Vin Diesel in Fast and Furious
OMG
I am so going to watch it
Now to be honest, as you can probably tell from the above attempts, I’m not sure if I’ve really got the hang of this haiku business. Three lines are just too complicated for me. I’m now working on developing my own form of poetry called the “Two Liner.” Here are my first attempts:
6 responses
Hehehe I absolutely loved your witty two liners. They are so well written, but I am a fan of Vin Diesel.
Good ole Billy.
I proclaimed to be a master of a lot of things back in school, but poetry or verse in any form was not included. I just cannot write poetry.
Hilariously funny!
Iambic pentameter, be damned.
Perspectives at Life & Faith in Caneyhead
Thanks Rajlakshmi! I like Vin Diesel too – hot!
Well that's two of us Geraint. I may shortly be down to a one-line poem:D
Delighted you enjoyed it Barbara:)