Iambic Pentameter
Paste a line of verse to see its stress pattern and meter. Add more lines to detect the rhyme scheme too.
Pronounced eye-AM-bik pen-TAM-uh-ter.
Iambic Pentameter: A metrical line of five iambic feet (ten syllables total) that alternates unstressed and stressed beats in a da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM rhythm.
Iambic pentameter is the workhorse line of English poetry and verse drama because five iambic feet (da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM) match the length of a single human breath and the natural cadence of spoken English. Poets establish the ten-syllable baseline and then use two classic variations to create tension: a trochaic inversion (flipping the first foot to DUM-da so the line opens on a hard stress) and a feminine ending (adding an eleventh unstressed syllable at the end of a line, as in Hamlet's 'To be, or not to be, that is the question'). When iambic pentameter is written without end rhyme, as in Shakespeare's plays and John Milton's Paradise Lost, it is called blank verse.
Iambic Pentameter examples
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (Scansion: shall I | com-PARE | thee TO | a SUM- | mer's DAY?)"
- Sonnet 18, William Shakespeare
"But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. (Scansion: but SOFT | what LIGHT | through YON- | der WIN- | dow BREAKS?)"
- Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
"Two households, both alike in dignity, / In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, (Scansion: two HOUSE- | holds BOTH | a-LIKE | in DIG- | ni-TY)"
- Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare
"Of Man's First Disobedience, and the Fruit / Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste (Blank verse scansion: of MAN'S | first DIS- | o-BE- | dience AND | the FRUIT)"
- Paradise Lost, John Milton
"To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells / With a sweet kernel; to set budding more, (Scansion: to SWELL | the GOURD | and PLUMP | the HA- | zel SHELLS)"
- To Autumn, John Keats
"To be, or not to be, that is the question: (Eleven syllables with a feminine ending on 'ques-tion': to BE | or NOT | to BE | that IS | the QUES-tion)"
- Hamlet, William Shakespeare
Try it on your own writing: Meter Checker - scan your own lines · Syllable Counter
Spot the Iambic Pentameter
Score: 0/0A metrical line of five iambic feet (ten syllables total) that alternates unstressed and stressed beats in a da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM rhythm.
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (Scansion: shall I | com-PARE | thee TO | a SUM- | mer's DAY?)"
Which work is this from?
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Iambic Pentameter: common questions
What is iambic pentameter in literature?
A metrical line of five iambic feet (ten syllables total) that alternates unstressed and stressed beats in a da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM rhythm. Iambic pentameter is the workhorse line of English poetry and verse drama because five iambic feet (da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM) match the length of a single human breath and the natural cadence of spoken English. Poets establish the ten-syllable baseline and then use two classic variations to create tension: a trochaic inversion (flipping the first foot to DUM-da so the line opens on a hard stress) and a feminine ending (adding an eleventh unstressed syllable at the end of a line, as in Hamlet's 'To be, or not to be, that is the question'). When iambic pentameter is written without end rhyme, as in Shakespeare's plays and John Milton's Paradise Lost, it is called blank verse.
What is an example of iambic pentameter?
A classic example is "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (Scansion: shall I | com-PARE | thee TO | a SUM- | mer's DAY?)" (Sonnet 18, William Shakespeare).
What is the difference between blank verse and iambic pentameter?
Iambic pentameter is the meter of a single line (five da-DUM feet, ten syllables). It can be rhymed (as in a Shakespearean sonnet or heroic couplets) or unrhymed. Blank verse is specifically unrhymed iambic pentameter, the form used across Shakespeare's plays and Milton's Paradise Lost.
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