How does a reader know what a line should sound like? Here it is important to point out yet another tool available to a poet – metric pattern. Perfected by William Shakespeare in his sonnets, one of the most well known patterns in poetry is iambic pentameter. Begin by asking students to read Shakespeare's Sonnet #18. Read the poem collectively and ask each student to read one line. When students are through, ask them how they knew how to read the lines. How did they know what the words should sound like? How each line should sound? Re-read the first line adding accent to the wrong places for example:
/ ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Ask students how they knew this sounded wrong. Then follow up with what it should sound like. Write the sentence on the board with the appropriate accents above each syllable for an iamb ( ^ / ).
^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Re-read the line again adding appropriate accents to stressed and unstressed syllables. Practice labeling stressed and unstressed syllables to different words such as names. For instance, my name is Elizabeth Trojanowski.
^ / ^ / / ^ / ^
E – liz – a – beth Tro – jan – ow – ski
Ask students to practice with their own names. Then continue to mark the accents above each line in the poem. Explain to students that each unstressed and stressed syllable together equals an iamb. Ask students to count the number of iambs in each line. Explain that the iambs in each line equal a meter. This particular pattern is iambic pentameter because there are 5 iambs in the meter. Shakespeare's Sonnet #138 is also an excellent example of this brief metric study. Ask students to write a poem in iambic pentameter together.
Begin with writing 4 made up lines on the board (invite students to contribute some lines). Add stressed and unstressed marks to each syllable. Revise each line together as a class adding or removing lines in order to add the appropriate number of stressed and unstressed syllables to each line. Ask students to attempt writing authentic poetry in iambic pentameter. Avoid asking students to put such pattern and form limitations on all their poems. This may inhibit many writers.
It is important to know your students well at this point. Although it is important to study the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in metered lines, it is not essential to continue this study. Learning about other patterns such as trochees, dactyls, etc. may be included when there is additional time and if you feel your students are ready to explore more patterns of rhythm. However, such a study is not necessary at this time.
