What is Blank Verse?
Blank verse is a poetic structure that emerged in 1514 when Italian writer Francesco Maria Molza attempted to translate Aeneid from Latin to English. This form of poetic prose has no fixed number of lines and is written with a regular meter and unrhymed lines. Blank verse, which is similar to normal speech, can be composed in various meters such as iamb, trochee, spondee, and dactyl. However, iambic pentameter is the most commonly used meter in blank verse. It is popular among Romantic English poets and some contemporary American poets and is used in both reflective and descriptive poetry as well as in dramatic monologs.
What is Iambic Pentameter?
Iambic pentameter is a meter used in poetry that dates back to Latin and Old French verses. It consists of five pairs of repeated unstressed syllables and stressed syllables. Each line in an iambic pentameter has ten syllables arranged in pairs. The unstressed syllables are followed by stressed ones, and the rhythm in each line sounds like ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM / ba-BUM. Chaucer is considered to have introduced iambic pentameter to English by using it in his Canterbury Tales.
Key Takeaways
- Blank verse is a poetic structure that is similar to normal speech and can be composed in various meters.
- Iambic pentameter is a meter used in poetry that consists of five pairs of repeated unstressed syllables and stressed syllables.
- Iambic pentameter is the most commonly used meter in blank verse.
