The Rhythm of Language

The Rhythm of LanguageIn Romeo and Juliet

Shakespeare favored one rhythm in his writing....

• Iambic pentameter

Iambic Pentameter is a type of

• Blank verse.• Blank verse in Romeo and Juliet occasionally

breaks the iambic pentameter rhythm, but this is not a mistake, it just helps to make the lines sound more like actual speech.

What is iambic pentameter?

• Let’s break down the words.• Iamb= a “foot” or the smallest set of repeated

syllables in a specific pattern.

What is that pattern?

• Take the first line of R and J. • Two houses, both alike in dignity• Look at the rhythm of that line.• weakSTRONGweakSTRONGweakSTRONGweakSTRONGweakSTRONG• One iamb or foot would be one “weakSTRONG”.

Ok, I get iamb, but why “pentameter”?• From math class, (yes, math in English class!)

you should know what the prefix “penta” means.

• Right! It means five.• And meter means just that, the meter of the

line.

So put it together

• A line written in iambic pentameter is made up of the iambic, or “weakSTRONG” pattern, and there are five feet, or sets of iambs, that make up the line.

• in FAIR verOna WHERE we SET our SCENE.

Sometimes...

• Shakespeare needed to say something that didn’t fit, so he MADE it fit.

• that I must LOVE a LOATHed ENeMY.• Normally we would say loathed as one

syllable, but Shakespeare added –ed as it’s own syllable to make it work out.

Rhyming Couplets

• There is rhyming in parts of R and J.• Usually this rhyming is found in something

called rhyming couplets.• A couplet is just what it sounds like- two lines.

Rhyming Couplets examples in Act II

• My only love, sprung from my only hate!Too early seen unknown, and known too late!(I,iv,154-5)

• (I,iv,154-5) means Act I, scene 4 (iv), lines 154 and 155.

Other rhyming couplets

• And what obscured in this fair volume liesFind written in the margent of his eyes. (I,iii,94-5)

• Compare her face with some that I shall showAnd I will make thee think thy swan a crow.(I,ii,93-4)

Most all rhyming couplets

• Are spoken by the upper class characters in the play.

• The rhyming affect signals a high class character.

How to mark syllables and meter ˘ / ˘ / ˘ / ˘ / ˘ /

In Fair Ver O Na Where We Set Our Scene

The ˘ symbol is called a breve. The / is called an accent mark. A breve indicates an unstressed syllable, and the accent indicates a stressed syllable.

Finally, the Shakespearean Sonnet

• A sonnet is a fourteen line poem in iambic pentameter.

• The rhyme scheme (remember rhyme scheme from when we read Poe’s poetry?) of a Shakespearean Sonnet is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.

The Prologue in Act I is a Sonnet.• Two households, both alike in dignity A

In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, BFrom ancient grudge break to new mutiny, AWhere civil blood makes civil hands unclean. BFrom forth the fatal loins of the these two foes, CA pair of star-crossed lovers take their life, DWhose misadventured piteous overthrows CDoth with their death bury their parents’ strife. DThe fearful passage of their death marked love, EAnd the continuance of their parents’ rage, FWhich, but their children’s end, naught could remove, EIs now the two hours’ traffic of our stage, FThe which if you with patient ears attend, GWhat here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. G

Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day? aThou art more lovely and more temperate: bRough winds do shake the darling buds of May, aAnd Summer's lease hath all too short a date: bSometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, cAnd oft' is his gold complexion dimm'd; dAnd every fair from fair sometime declines, cBy chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd: dBut thy eternal Summer shall not fade eNor lose possession of that fair thou owest; fNor shall Death brag thou wanderest in his shade, eWhen in eternal lines to time thou growest: f

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, gSo long lives this, and this gives life to thee. g

So, what does that mean?• The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved:

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" The next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. In line 2, the speaker stipulates what mainly differentiates the young man from the summer's day: he is "more lovely and more temperate." Summer's days tend toward extremes: they are shaken by "rough winds"; in them, the sun ("the eye of heaven") often shines "too hot," or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its date is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as "every fair from fair sometime declines." The final quatrain of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever ("Thy eternal summer shall not fade...") and never die. In the couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved's beauty will accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last forever; it will live "as long as men can breathe or eyes can see."

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun; aCoral is far more red than her lips' red; bIf snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; aIf hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. bI have seen roses damasked, red and white, cBut no such roses see I in her cheeks; dAnd in some perfumes is there more delight cThan in the breath that from my mistress reeks. d I love to hear her speak, yet well I know eThat music hath a far more pleasing sound; fI grant I never saw a goddess go; eMy mistress when she walks treads on the ground. f

And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare gAs any she belied with false compare. G

(well, that isn’t very romantic, or is it?)

So, what does that mean?• This sonnet compares the speaker's lover to a number of other beauties--

and never in the lover's favor. Her eyes are "nothing like the sun," her lips are less red than coral; compared to white snow, her breasts are dun-colored, and her hairs are like black wires on her head. In the second quatrain, the speaker says he has seen roses separated by color ("damasked") into red and white, but he sees no such roses in his mistress's cheeks; and he says the breath that "reeks" from his mistress is less delightful than perfume. In the third quatrain, he admits that, though he loves her voice, music "hath a far more pleasing sound," and that, though he has never seen a goddess, his mistress--unlike goddesses--walks on the ground. In the couplet, however, the speaker declares that, "by heav'n," he thinks his love as rare and valuable "As any she belied with false compare"--that is, any love in which false comparisons were invoked to describe the loved one's beauty.

Notice...

• That sonnets all end with a...• Rhyming couplet.