William Shakespeare is almost synonymous with iambic pentameter, his famous plays making this popular rhyme scheme famous as well. From Chaucer to King James I and Edmund Spenser, iambic pentameter flowed through English classical verse and the stages of The Globe and Blackfriars, prolifically dominating the spoken word in performances all over England. Iambic Pentameter was a major player in theater, performance, and the arts, along with several other metric rhythms that were popularly used in vocal and theatrical performances throughout the 15 and 16th centuries.

 

Remaining the key frustration of many a student studying Shakespeare, iambic pentameter gets taught as Shakespeare’s most prominent meter, and we are told it is important. But why is iambic pentameter so historical? Why does it matter to the degree that every major course on Shakespeare considers it essential? With other rhyme schemes available, why did Shakespeare use this one in particular? What makes iambic pentameter so useful for stage performance, and why did Shakespeare choose to “break the iamb” and go with a different meter at key moments within a play?

Here to help us unravel the poetic strands of Shakespeare’s history is our guest this week, Susan Dalzell. Susan is the author of Poetry 101: From Shakespeare and Rupi Kaur to Iambic Pentameter and Blank Verse, Everything You Need to Know about Poetry. Her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, CASE’s Currents Magazine, Forbes Travel Guide, Metropolis (Tokyo), and The Columbus Dispatch, among several others.

Susan joins us today to explore the history of iambic pentameter, and help us learn exactly why Shakespeare used this particular rhyme scheme in his plays.