In this second episode from my latest book High Five! The William Shakespeare Beat is Back I’ll offer examples of what can happen when you revive the 5-beat line (and ONE, and TWO, and THREE, and FOUR, and FIVE) that the world’s greatest verse writer used in all his plays. Reviving Shakespeare, you also revive Keats, whose six great odes are mostly in iambic pentameter, as well. I wrote a half dozen original odes to emulate those of Keats, and then I wrote another 7 to prove it wasn’t just luck. Here I’ll give you samples from both groups.

First, for context, the opening stanza of Keats’ most famous poem, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (p. 30 of my book).

Then, the samples. From Group One:

362 (1) Ode on Weather Theater

363 (2) Ode on Verse Pedagogy

367 (6) Ode on Words New-Wrought

From Group Two:

376 (2) Ode on a Shmurah Matzah

377 (3) Ode on Dead Languages

380 (6) Ode to a Cup