We cover each of these in depth on their own respective pages, but below is a quick overview to help make understanding iambs easier. In order to understand iambs in more depth, it’s helpful to have a strong grasp of a few other literary terms related to poetry. Here's how to pronounce iamb: eye-am Iambs in Depth Oddly enough, the stress pattern of the word 'iamb'-stressed unstressed-is that of a trochee.
The opposite of an iamb is a trochee, a metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable (as in the word ' Po-et').It is the primary meter of many poetic forms, including the sonnet, and is also the form of meter most often used by Shakespeare in his plays. Iambic pentameter-a line of poetry containing five iambs-is the most common meter in English poetry.The other feet are: trochees, anapests, dactyls, and spondees. Metrical patterns in poetry are called feet.The word 'define' is an iamb, with the unstressed syllable of 'de' followed by the stressed syllable, “fine”: De- fine. What is an iamb? Here’s a quick and simple definition:Īn iamb is a two-syllable metrical pattern in poetry in which one unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable.
