Download Blank Verse

BLANK VERSE
BLANK
VERSE
Poetry that is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter.
There is no rhyme scheme, but the lines of poetry do have a
rhythm. Each line has five iambs.
An iamb is one unstressed syllable (-) followed by a
stressed syllable (/).
Pentameter means that each line has five iambs. So each
line has a total of 10 syllables. The line will have five
strong (stressed) syllables.
The blank-verse line has become the great line for epic and dramatic
poetry in English, perhaps because the English language seems to be
strongly iambic. William Shakespeare’s plays and John Milton’s epics
are written in blank verse. . . . Modern poets – notably Robert Frost –
also use the blank-verse line. Because it has no rhythm, blank verse
seems very natural, but with the underlying iambic meter ever present, it
also has a tightness and dependability.
From: Adventures in Appreciation. 906.
SOME EXAMPLES
- /
- /
/
/
- /
“O, par don me, thou bleed ing piece of earth,”
/ - /
- /
- / /
“An let us bathe our hands in Cae sar’s blood”