Stressed Syllable

Highlight the syllables below that are stressed.

 

Marullus:

Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?

Act I, sc. i

 

Answer: Wherefore rejoice? What conquest brings he home?

 

 

Highlight the syllables below that are stressed.

 

Marullus:

You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!

Act I, sc. i

 

Answer: You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!

 

Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter in his plays because the meter is similar to normal speech patterns.

In Act I, the commoners speak in prose, but then those who are higher in soceity, in this case the tribunes, speak in iambic pentameter.

 

Highlight the syllables below that are stressed.

 

Brutus:

I would not, Cassius, yet I love him well. But wherefore do you hold me here so long? What is it that you would impart to me? If it be aught toward the general good...

Answer: I would not, Cassius, yet I love him well. But wherefore do you hold me here so long? What is it that you would impart to me? If it be aught toward the general good...

 

Is Brutus speaking in iambic pentameter?

Answer: Yes, Brutus is speaking in imabic penameter. There are ten syllables in each line with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

 

 

 

Highlight the syllables below that are stressed.

 

Brutus had rather be a villager

Thank to repute himself a son of Rome...

 

repute: be generally said or believed to do something or to have particular characteristics

 

Answer: Brutus had rather be a villager

Thank to repute himself a son of Rome...

 

Review

An iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one.

A pentameter means that there are five meters, or measures, or iambs.

In other words, iambic pentameter is a poetic device consisting of ten syllables per line with two syllables (one unaccented followed by an accented).