do sonnets have to be in iambic pentameter

alludes to Abraham Lincoln without using his name: 'Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.'Īnaphora: The repeated use of word at the start of two or more consecutive lines.

Example: In his speech 'I Have a Dream', Martin Luther King Jr. Example: Tongue twisters often use alliteration: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.Īllusion: A reference or suggestion to a historical or well-known person, place or thing. Poetic devices used in Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 130Īlliteration: repetition of the same sound at the beginning of several words in a sequence.

You will find all these devices used in the two poems combined, but you will not find all devices in both poems. You will find a list of devices with definitions and examples in the expandable box below. The words that Shakespeare chose in his poetry were not random in one way or another, they all create a mood and they emphasis the key thematic idea of the sonnet.Ĭhoose one of the sonnets and read through it several times looking for various poetic devices.

Poetic devices are tools used to create rhythm, enhance meaning, and intensify mood using a variety of writing strategies. Why are these elements important in Shakespeare's work? How do they add life to his poems? Discuss. But these poetic elements can make an important contribution to the overall impact of a poem. Studying the structure, the rhyme, and the rhythm of a poem may seem irrelevant and unimportant. Iambic pentameter is often compared to a heart beat. Which of the poems is most consistent in its use of iambic pentameter?ĭoes the rhythm make some lines more difficult to read than others? To find out what iambic pentameter is and how it is used, watch the following TedEd video: Why Shakespeare loved iambic pentameter. Rhythm: There are many different rhythmic patterns in poetry, but Shakespeare is most famous for using iambic pentameter.

Rhyme scheme: Using the letters a to g, identify the rhyme scheme of the poems. Go through the sonnets and identify the different stanzas. Structure: The Shakespearean Sonnet is divided into four stanzas: three quatrains and a couplet. Go through Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 130 again and compare their structure, rhyme scheme, and rhythm.

Do sonnets have to be in iambic pentameter