Songs are even more memorable, but blank verse seems to be sufficiently memorable for actors to keep multiple plays going in repertory.Īnd finally, it just sounds good. ![]() ![]() ![]() Some kind of structure helps you remember how the words fit together: one sound cues the next. partly it makes plays easier to memorize. I don't really know why we picked iambic rather than trochaic verse for all I know it's arbitrary.Īs for why he wrote in verse at all. English words tend to mix stressed and unstressed syllables, so you get iambs and trochees in speech quite frequently. French and Italian frequently use six-foot lines, which correspond to about the same number of words but with more gender-marked endings. The "why" is simply that it's perceived to fit the natural rhythms of English fairly well. (The first couple of lines are somewhat loose in the meter, but the second couplet is fairly rigorous, roughly pronounced: and BAH-thed EV'ry VEIN in SWICH li-QUOR/of WHICH vir-TUE en-GEN-dred is the FLOOR ".) The droghte of march hath perced to the roote, Poets had been using it since at least Middle English, such as Geoffrey Chaucer in Canterbury Tales: I loue thee well, say Iuno what she will. Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske,Īs time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds,įor trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds,Īnd sing of Knights and Ladies° gentle deeds Īnd Christopher Marlowe in Dido Queen of Carthage: ![]() Edmund Spenser used it in The Faerie Queene: Shakespeare wrote iambic pentameter because that was the most common verse meter of the time.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |