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One Verse Every Week 'BLANK VERSE'

Updated: May 13, 2021


How verse metrical templates evolved

We will start with verse-types in the English language first, only because the content generated, for the moment by 'O', is mainly in English.


There primarily are the two types, when referring to verse as a countable noun or as a unit of a poem: Blank Verse and Free Verse


Blank Verse is verse without rhyme, but has a definite rhythm. It, typically, is an iambic pentameter, which is verse with five metrical feet containing ten syllables. The ten syllables are five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables, like five heart beats of dee-Dum, where one unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable, until it is a metrical feet of five beats and ten syllables.

Here's an example of a blank verse or an iambic pentameter:


Come now, a roundel and a fairy song;
come NOW| a ROUN|del  AND|a FAI| ry SONG
dee  Dum| dee Dum|dee Dum|deeDum|dee Dum

Verse from ACTII, SCENE II of Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream


 

FUN FACT: William Shakespeare often wrote in verse, especially, in iambic pentameter.

 

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