AP LIT/IVES

What is blank verse and how does Shakespeare use it?

Shakespeare's use of blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter, is an important
element of his plays. In rhymed verse, the words that fall at the end of lines sound very
similar, like "love" and "dove," or "moon" and "June." Shakespeare sometimes uses rhyming
couplets in his plays, which are two consecutive lines of rhyming verse. An example would
be "Indeed this counselor / Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, / Who was in life a
foolish prating knave" (Hamlet Act III, Scene 4).

IAMBIC PENTAMETER/Blank Verse

Blank verse, on the other hand, has no rhyme, but is does have a definite rhythm created by
the careful structuring of iambic feet - patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables. One
poetic foot is a single unit that is repeated in a steady rhythm to a line of verse. The iambic
foot (or iamb) consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, like "inSIST"
or "reSIST."
The pentameter portion of iambic pentameter refers to the number of feet (iambs) that are
repeated in each line of verse, in this case five. So, remember that a line of blank verse in
iambic pentameter does not rhyme, but it will always follow this rhythm:
weak STRONG weak STRONG weak STRONG weak STRONG weak STRONG
Blank verse is a pretty formal way to speak, so it's reserved for nobles and formal situations,
like Claudius's address to the court in Act I, scene ii. Hamlet's soliloquies are in verse too,
but he also speaks a lot of prosewhich we think has something to do with how much roleplaying he does.
Here's an example of blank verse from Hamlet. As you read it, listen for the iambic
pentameter rhythm:
But, woe is me, you are so sick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former state,
That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust,
Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must.
Incidentally, once you get into the groove of iambic pentameter, you might find that reading
Shakespeare becomes a little easier. At least now you know part of why the phrasing of his
language can seem so odd. He's making a deliberate effort to work out the syllables in a
very specific way. Try it yourself sometime and your words might come out a little strange,
too!

Prose
Characters who aren't so high-classlike the gravediggersdon't get to speak in verse; they
just talk. Hamlet himself, however, sometimes speaks in prose, even when he's being
awfully poetic. Take, for instance, the following line:
How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable!
in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the
paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?(2.2.250)