Description: Metre in English Verse
verse (192) sonnet (30) metre (14) scansion (5) blank verse (3) iamb (2) english verse (1) iambic pentameter (1) dactyl (1) metric foot (1)
ABOUT ENGLISH VERSIFICATION A lmost everyone can name some widely recognized examples of English verse (such as Little Jack Horner , Shakespeare's sonnets, Milton’s Paradise Lost , Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est ). However, if presented with an interesting text that they have never come across before, many people are uncertain whether or not it could be classified as verse , especially if it doesn’t contain much rhyme.
So, in the English Language tradition, what is verse? And how does it differ from prose? What precisely are “blank verse” and “free verse”? What is “metre”? Is it true that Shakespeare’s plays are largely written in “iambic pentameter”, whatever that might be? (Spoiler alert: I explain why this is an impossible fiction!)
Throughout my career as a teacher of English Language and Literature I have been irritated by the nonsense prated about English versification. For centuries schools and universities passed on unthinkingly the muddled doctrines inherited from previous generations, who had all been taught that English verse follows the same “rules” as verse composed in the venerated Classical languages. In my book I show how English verse actually works, as professional readers and actors and sensitive listeners and,