BLANK VERSEUnrhymed iambic pentameter

BLANK VERSE

Structure of iambic pentameter:•Five iambs per line

–iamb: metrical foot with two syllables—stressed, then unstressed

•Ten syllables per line (although exceptions do occur)

BLANK VERSEUnrhymed iambic pentameter

Hamlet excerptSeems, madam, Nay, it is. I know not 'seems.'

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,Nor customary suits of solemn black,

Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye,

Nor the dejected havior of the visage, Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, 'That can denote me truly. These indeed seem,

For they are actions that a man might play; But I have that within which passeth show-

These but the trappings and the suits of woe.

CONCEIT

• A far-fetched simile or metaphor–It compares two very different things

CONCEIT

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

CONCEIT

CONCEIT“There is no frigate like a book.”

- Emily Dickinson, There is No Frigate Like a Book

SOLILOQUY•Part of a play in which

an actor reveals his/her thoughts aloud and by oneself

Patrick Stewart in Macbeth

SOLILOQUY

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded time,And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then is heard no more: it is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.

Macbeth