The Tragedy of Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet is written in blank verse Blank verse is a poetic form characterized by unrhymed lines written in iambic pentameter An iamb ID: 224681
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Slide1Slide2
Things to know
The Tragedy of
Julius
Caesar
(and
Romeo and Juliet
)
is written in blank verse.
Blank
verse
is a poetic form characterized by unrhymed lines written in
iambic pentameter
.
An
iamb
is a foot (unit of rhythm) in which an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable: da-DUH.
Pentamete
r refers to a rhythmic pattern in which each line has five feet.
In
iambic pentameter
, the typical line has five iambs, or five stressed syllables each preceded by an unstressed syllable.
Slide3
Upper class,
Ya’ll
Shakespeare’s “upper class” characters speak in iambic pentameter. Lower-born characters speak in prose. Sometimes, Shakespeare breaks the rhythmic pattern in a line to add contrast or emphasis.
Why do you think only “upper class” characters speak in iambic pentameter in Shakespeare’s play?
Slide4
Brutus:
No not an oath: if not the face of men,
The sufferance of our souls, the time’s abuse,--
If these be motives weak, break off betimes,
And every man hence to his idle bed;
So let high-
sighted tyranny
range on,
Till each man drop by lottery. But if these,
As I am sure they do, bear fire enough
To kindle cowards and to steel with
valour
The melting
spirits of
women, then countrymen,
What need we
any spur
but our own cause,
To pick us to redress? What other bond
Than secret Romans, that have spoke the word,
And will not palter? And what other oath
Than honesty to honesty engaged,
That this shall be, or we will fall for it?Slide5
No not an oath: if
not
the face of men,
The sufferance of our
souls
, the time’s abuse,--
If these be motives
weak
, break off betimes,
And every man hence
to his idle bed;
So let high-sighted
tyranny range on,
Till each man drop by
lottery. But if these,
As I am sure they
do
, bear fire enough
To kindle cowards and
to steel with
valour
The melting spirits
of
women, then countrymen,
What need we any
spur but our own cause,
To pick us to redress?
What other bond
Than secret Romans,
that have spoke the word,
And will not palter?
And
what other oath
Than honesty to
honesty engaged,
That this shall be, or
we will fall for it?
Slide6
Evaluate Shakespeare's purpose in using
iambic pentameter
in his plays and poetry.
(what’s the point?)
SO…