hello my bookish friends out there in booktube land and welcome to another episode of tristan and the classics do not be swift to hasten on from here but hold a while for your own benefit come learn the secret of hypnotic speech turn night into day new into old turn white into darkest gray led into gold yes gift unto your tongue fine eloquence what do i mean well keep watching and find out don't forget to subscribe and ring the bell [Music] so whether you're into or read a lot of shakespeare or not please don't rush on from this video but watch it to the end because it will give you one of the most valuable lessons in the brilliance and power of language and how it's used now you might be at school studying shakespeare or homeschooling or maybe you're a bit older and you're now finding more interest in shakespeare's works you'll have come across the phrase shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter and this is declared very solemnly as if it's the most important thing that we can all know about shakespeare but if you're anything like me when i was told this at school i sensed it was important but no one really took me beyond the fact that he wrote in iambic pentameter and a few questions come up about this so what we're going to look at in this video is first exactly what is iambic pentameter how can we identify it how can we get familiar with it once we've got that we're going to move on to why iambic pentameter is so important why was it the style or the rhythm of choice for shakespeare to write it and many other playwrights and after that there's the big question that very very frequently is just overlooked but most people ask when reading shakespeare and that is why can't i spot iambic pentameter when i'm reading or why do i seem to think that iambic pentameter is missing in shakespeare's writing i can't seem to work it out for myself well we're going to take a look at all of those things so let's get cracking on the first point what is iambic pentameter well first we're just going to break this up we've got i am we have pent and we have meter now when we read poetry and verse it's written with a particular kind of rhythm now another word for rhythm is meter so that's when we come into iambic pentam meter it's the rhythm we're talking about a good example of a rhythm would be a limerick so here's one on screen from rajad kipling where it says there was a small boy from quebec who was buried in snow to his neck when they said are you frizz he replied yes i is but they don't call this cold in quebec now did you hear the rhythm to that that is meter okay so when we're talking about iambic pentameter it means we're talking about a particular rhythm of speech on the page but as you know when reading shakespeare it hasn't got that rhythm of just rhyming poetry it sounds like normal speech but there is a rhythm and we'll come to understand it in just a moment when it comes to creating meter in verse each line is made up of something called feet so what is a foot well it's simply this a foot is a group of syllables not words syllables which are sounded in a particular way in a particular rhythm and these rhythms these sounds are called either unstressed or stressed a classic example frequently used to explain this is the word rebel so we'll put it on screen rebel notice how we say it the first syllable has stress on it reb and then the latter syllable l sort of just fades away rebel whereas if you were to swap the stresses around instead of rebel you could have rebel notice that the energy is in the second syllable l i want you to notice something about this when we talk about stressed syllables it doesn't mean to say they have to be said louder it simply means that in our speech the emphasis the energy lands more naturally in a particular syllable so if i were to say you're a little rebel then you hear it in the reb or i think the people are going to rebel see hear that energy in the second syllable and that's what feet are it's a grouping of syllables and the way they're pronounced or emphasized so there are different kinds of feet inverse you have troches you have spondees you have dactyls for example and there's more but the one we are interested in is the iamb because that's where we get iambic pentameter the rhythm made with iambs so what is an iamb an i am is a grouping of two syllables which when sounded has the pattern of unstressed first syllable then stressed so when we go back to thinking of rebel again is that an iamp remember an i am needs to be unstressed then stress well rebel well no stressed at the beginning so it's not and i am but rebel unstressed stressed rebel is an iamb another example of an iamb would be the word again it's two syllables isn't it so just look at the word again we sort of skip past the a and put a little more emphasis in gain again the energy is there now when we mark down on paper the stresses and the non-stresses in a piece of verse the way we do it is like this here we have the word again notice the first syllable is unstressed and we have this little crescent shape that means unstressed gain the second syllable has the stress in it and so it's marked with a slash so here's a few more iambs we went to play a game do you notice we don't have to over exaggerate the emphasis the stress it's just that more energy lands in one syllable so that is what an iamb is it's a grouping of two syllables whether that's in one word or two separate words and they follow the rhythmic pattern of unstressed stress so we've learned meter means rhythm we found out that an iamb is a particular way of sounding two syllables what does pent mean well pent means five like in pentagon a five-sided shape so when we talk about pentameter it means the meter or the rhythm of the line is made up of five pent feet and in iambic pentameter it would mean that those five feet are all iambs and it gives us a rhythm like this and stressed stressed and stressed stressed so an example of an iambic pentameter sentence would be this and then we went to play a game of ball did you hear the bounciness of that sentence let me just slow it down with a little bit more exaggerated stress and then we went to play a game of ball but we don't talk normally like that we don't we don't deliberately over emphasize so let me just say it normally and listen for the vague emphasis of energy in the second syllables and then we went to play a game of ball can you hear that rhythm that is iambic pentameter so now we have a definition of iambic pentameter i want you to come with me i want you to get a piece of paper and a pen and we're going to just see if we can find iambic pentameter in shakespeare's words so let's just take a look at some lines from shakespeare now this first one here is from romeo and juliet and it's the scene where romeo has gone to the orchard of juliet's house and he's looking up at the balcony where she is he's talking to himself and then the door opens and a light spills out from the balcony so let's have a look at the words and see if we can mark them as iambic pentameter but soft well we can see the stress is there on soft and there was none on but so there we go but soft what light through yonder wind doe breaks did you see the pattern but soft what light through yonder window breaks now you can see that my voice went down at the end breaks but the energy was still in this part here he carries on it is the east and juliet is the sun do you see the rhythm of iambic pentameter here and just so we can see the iambs let's just draw the dividing line between the two syllables so but soft we've got the gap there what light through yon so notice this is a good example we're looking at the syllables not the words through yarn is an i am because through is not emphasized through yon de win so again it's the syllables de win doe breaks do you see how this is broken up one two three four five pent iambic meter iambic pentameter and it's the same here it is the east and jule yet is the sun five sets of iambs pentameter here's the most famous line of course from romeo and juliet juliet herself speaks this so let's see is it iambic pentameter she says she doesn't call out oh heavily stressed she sighs it oh unstressed romeo romeo wherefore art thou romeo do you hear that so there we have again meow where for art thou now you notice there's an extra little mark here and we'll come to that at a later point but what you see here is iambic pentameter now i have a test for you to do now it's important again for me to say here that one of the problems we have when trying to grasp by ambik pentameter when you're reading shakespeare is over stressing because then it does make things sound unnatural so with what we just looked at but soft what light through yonder window breaks no one speaks like that say it normally and you will actually still hear the rhythm so think romeo he's watching juliet on the balcony and he's been talking to himself and now he tells himself to be quiet but soft soft quietly listen you know halt so let's listen to the sentence but soft what light through yonder window breaks did you hear that didn't emphasize very hard at all didn't over dramatize that sentence but could you hear the rhythm of iambic pentameter but soft and stress stressed what light stressed through yonder window breaks yonder window breaks could you identify that but now i've got a specific test for you i'm going to put a sentence on the screen and i want you to mark out the unstressed and stressed syllables in the line it's that famous line from hamlet to be or not to be that is the question now you take that and mark out your own annotations on it so how did you get on did your annotation of the line look like this to be or not to be that is the question notice that the stress on that isn't in the right place if it's perfect ambit pentameter it should be unstressed and then stressed on the is but did you get it this way with the emphasis on that well that's very interesting because that tells you something about iambic pentameter this could be a clue to the actor of where the stress should come if we put it in perfect iambic pentameter we'll get the phrase to be or not to be that is the question so it changes the meaning however this is the wonderful thing about iambic pentameter and we'll be coming to it soon enough in the third point but there is scope for interpretation for an actor and for a reader where you don't have to keep perfectly to the iambic rhythm but like i say we'll come back to that right now i just want to focus on why is iambic pentameter so important why did shakespeare choose to write in iambic pentameter there are two remarkable aspects to iambic pentameter that have a sort of mystifying hypnotic effect on us when we listen to them and that particularly add to eloquence when we hear it and those two things are these first of all iambic pentameter is closest to the natural rhythm of everyday speech so i don't know i've just said that phrase but let's have a look closest to the natural rhythm of everyday speech okay it dropped at the end but we'll come to that that was close to iambic pentameter now i didn't plan that it was just my casual speaking so when we hear a play in iambic pentameter it feels very familiar it flows very easily it's got this mellifluous melodious sound to it which is pleasing to our ears and it's almost hypnotic in its flow but second to that i want you to do a little experiment right now you can be sitting down it's fine get your fingers and do that just pinch them together and i want you to put them on the center of your chest and i want you to tap lightly tap once and then slap your chest and we're going to do iambic pentameter the tap is unstressed and the bang is stressed okay let's do five of them ti what does that sound like it's the rhythm of our heartbeat now isn't that curious and that seems to explain one of the reasons why iambic pentameter is so deeply moving it's the rhythm of our heart and that's why when shakespeare uses iambic pentameter he'll use it specifically with certain characters in certain situations for instance but soft what light through yonder window breaks romeo is deeply in love and his words here match the pounding of his heart love is brilliant when put in iambic pentameter so here's a good example the first line of twelfth night reads like this if music be the food of love play on now isn't that a very eloquent sounding sentence what does it mean well the person saying if music is what feeds love then keep playing how would we say that today well often we might try to express ourselves say oh music makes you feel so much more in love we should put more of it on that's not very eloquent is it but if you put it into the rhythm of the heartbeat at only ten syllables which is just the right length to sound eloquent and clear we get if music be the food of love play on that's something that is brilliant about iambic pentameter the reason shakespeare uses it is because it is the most ennobling rhythm in the english language all of the nobles in shakespeare speak in iambic pentameter because it has the flow which is easiest to our ears and when there's no um's ears and stuttering and stumbling over ideas it sounds eloquent and forceful it just washes along like a flood and you're carried upon it so for example we're going to take a quick look at a section from henry v he's rousing the troops to fight at the battle of agincourt you can see the full speech in a different video of mine i'll put the link below but we're just looking at the end now listen to how eloquent and noble and grand henry sounds and how motivated he is we few we happy few we band of brothers for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother be he near so vile this day shall gentle his condition and gentlemen in england now a bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here and hold their manhoods cheap whilst any speaks that fought with us upon said crispin's day now you notice that i put in sort of the the deliberate rhythm of iambic pentameter there but did you feel how motivating those words were how irresistible the force was as he came to this crescendo of motivating them to fight and he doesn't say we few his emphasis is on few because there's not many of them we few we happy few the dead we band of brothers so iambic pentameter really lifts the soul from inside it is the most irresistible rhythm to the english ear and that is why shakespeare writes in it but that brings us to another question you may have asked or been troubled about and to deal with this we're going to do another exercise using the opening scene to richard the third i want you to have pen and paper to hand so now i would like to do an exercise with you um from richard iii this is the opening part of act one where richard talks about now is the winter of our discontent so if you can go and print out up to the sentence our dreadful marches to delightful measures and then when you've got it come back with your own pen the reason we're doing this exercise is because if you've read any shakespeare and you've heard about iambic pentameter you may sometimes think well when i read shakespeare the iambic pentameter doesn't always sound natural or i'm sure i'm not reading it correctly i can't find the iambic pentameter or even sometimes you may think and worry i think the iambic pentameter is messed up that shakespeare is not writing in it at all so why would teachers and scholars say he writes in iambic pentameter this exercise is going to solve that problem for you so let's go through and annotate put the scanning on the scan is the own stress stress on all of the syllables so this first two sentences of richard the third now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this son of york how would you write down the stresses and unstressed well if we do direct iambic it would mean now is the winter of our discontent may glorious summer by the sun of york trying not to emphasize now and placing the stress on is only turns this into a question now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by the sun of york well it's not a question but if we stress is and not now we get a question now is the winter of our discontent do you hear that actually what we find is richard is declaring now is the winter of our discontent so the first syllable is stressed and the second is unstressed now is the so that's not stress when ah so here we recognize this this iambic pattern and stress stressed and but what's happened at the front we have a different type of foot it's actually called a troche so he's broken ironbit pentameter hasn't he well let's carry on the sentence made glorious some by the sun of york now obviously we don't say it like that as i've said but if we just read it may glorious summer by the sun of york you hear the the tripping bouncing iambic pentameter so that's in iambic pentameter but this as we've noted is back to front and this is a common practice by shakespeare the reason he's changed it here is because richard has just walked in and wants to get our attention so he says now is the winter of our discontent but that doesn't stop this from being iambic pentameter it's not pure but look how quickly it falls back into the rhythm of iambic pentameter it falls in very quickly the reason he can do this is because if every line was in perfect iambic pentameter it would sound boring and unnatural we don't speak titanti tomti thumpty thumpty tum titomti tumti tumti tumpty tum ti tumti tumti tumti it become monotonous so this is natural this is how we speak but by holding to the main framework of iambic pentameter he forces his characters to speak clearly and with effortless flow what appears like effortless flow which makes them sound eloquent let's carry on shall we and all well that's clearly stressed isn't it and all the clouds that loud upon our house you can hear the iambic there and all the clouds that lad upon our house and now look at this sentence what do you get here i'll let you do it first in the deep bosom of the ocean buried can you hear it in the deep bosom of the ocean buried where was the stress it's not there it's not there in the deep bosom of the ocean buried did you see that we have a different foot again here this has its own name as well called a pyrrhic and then that turns this one into a different kind of foot this is called a spondy you don't have to remember these words i'm just showing you so he's broken iambic pentameter again does that mean he doesn't write in iambic pentameter does that mean you're not understanding it correctly no when you notice that the stresses aren't here and that there's two back to back here you've got it right just look at how quickly he gets back to iambic pentameter again or at least iams in the meter do you see why it said he writes in iambic pentameter we have a slight deviation here four syllables here but all of the rest follows the right pattern we have the same trochee here now now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths okay we've got a we've got a bit of a jumble here and that's because he's speaking naturally okay we also have this ending with two sets of iambs i am just there overall he's holding to the framework of iambic pentameter because he then carries on in that meter our brew zed arms hung up for monuments this is perfect iambic you see that and he we know this because the it's not bruised it's bruised bruised okay our bruised arms ah stern alarms change to merry meetings now we're going to pick up on this phrase here merry meetings we notice this in another sentence that we looked at earlier on i think it was from romeo and juliet or romeo romeo wherefore art thou rome yo and it ends with this downbeat this unstressed you'll notice here we have 11 syllables so does that mean this is not iambic pentameter not at all in iambic pentameter it's common and actually encouraged to also use an 11th syllable that is unstressed and the reason for that is because it changes the feel of the speech and it's also natural we also have it here in the ocean buried having an this is called a feminine ending it's called feminine because it lacks force so a stressed syllable is masculine because men are forceful and brutish and women are more gentle and pleasing so they have a softer tone hence a feminine ending shakespeare uses this brilliantly because what happens with an unstressed ending is it sort of finishes an idea look at look at this again now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by the sun of york and all the clouds that lied upon our house in the deep bosom of the ocean buried see how it finished buried their red then he can change his thought to a bit more imagery now are our brows bound he carries on a different thought our bruised arms hung up for monuments our stern alarm has changed to merry meetings and let's follow the rest our dreadful mark dreadful march is too delightful notice the feminine ending here on measures it finishes an idea he's concluding actually makes him sound a little bit fed up in this situation but let's just go back for iambic pentameter overall looking at that what do you notice this is a a line that's particularly mixed up but it doesn't matter because look at overall we've nearly from the beginning we've nearly got iambic pentameter all the way along look at these last three iambic pentameter all the way so that's why we say he writes an arabic pentameter even though we do find changes in the rhythm we do find him breaking the strict iamb here we've got the pyrrhic followed by the spondy for example he uses troches a lot this opening part where it's stressed unstressed instead of the other way around does that make sense to you so there we have it our discussion of iambic pentameter we've learned what it is why shakespeare built everything around it and why it is that you frequently find that you can't match the iambic rhythm to every sentence and what that means and how it's used by shakespeare i hope that this video has really helped you to appreciate more fully the grandeur the brilliance the magic of language and that if you understand how it is constructed it can be used to manipulate and move the soul to create effects on the mind and the heart the emotions and the nerves it is just a wonderful thing and shakespeare was brilliant at it i hope you understand why iambic pentameter was the rhythm of choice for him because it above all else elevates every one of our sentiments to a higher plane so brilliant is iambic pentameter and its use and many other things shakespeare put into his play which i don't talk about in this video that his plays are still the most popular plays around the world in different countries 500 years after he wrote them just think of that imagine writing something and 500 years from now in you know the 27th century and people are still performing your works that is how powerful iambic pentameter is so an experiment for you if you've got a loved one you want to write them a poem try and write it in iambic pentameter it will elevate the feeling of love and affection if you've got a speech at university college school wherever try crafting a part of it in iambic pentameter to see the hypnotic effect that it has now i hope you've enjoyed this video if you have please leave comments down below and let me know and ask me if there's anything else you'd like me to cover but also can you share this on your facebook and instagram it helps the youtube algorithm to recognize the video so that this can go forward to help others understanding this this essential part of shakespearean literature on top of that if you would like to support my little channel in the comments but not in the comments in the description below there's a link to my buy me a coffee page where you can contribute like three pounds if you want and what that does is it helps me with expenses for research buying books and for the time this takes you can tell by the lighting that i've been at this for hours and hours to get this together for you but if you can't contribute don't worry the thing that's most important is that you enjoy these videos and you get something out of them to build your appreciation of language and the classics until the next video i wish you joy in your reading