What is the standard metrical foot used in Shakespeare's sonnets?
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Correct answer: Iambic pentameter (five iambs)
Shakespearean sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, consisting of five iambs (unstressed then stressed syllable) per line. This meter is widely noted for mirroring the natural rhythm of English speech and even the human heartbeat.
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More Shakespearean Sonnets questions
- In Sonnet 130 ('My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun'), what traditional poetic convention is Shakespeare satirizing?
- Which of the following describes the relationship between the quatrains and the couplet in a Shakespearean sonnet?
- In Sonnet 29 ('When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes'), what causes the speaker’s state to change from despair to joy?
- Shakespeare's 154 sonnets were first published as a collection in which year?
- The mysterious dedication of the 1609 Quarto is addressed to a 'Mr. W.H.' Who is the most common candidate for this identity among scholars?
- Sonnet 73 ('That time of year thou mayst in me behold') uses three metaphors to describe the speaker's aging. What are they?