LANGUAGE

Iambic Pentameter

Most of Shakespeares plays and sonnets are written in Iambic Pentameter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0aAWuUX 5jU

Meter refers to the pattern of syllables in a line of poetry. The most basic unit of measure in a poem is the syllable and the pattern of syllables in a line, from stressed to unstressed or vice versa.

Two syllables together is known as a foot. So in a line of poetry the cow would be considered one foot. Because when you say the words, the is unstressed and cow is stressed, it can be represented as da DUM. An unstressed/stressed foot is known as an iamb.

Penta = 5 Pentameter means 5 meters. So a line of poetry written in pentameter has 5 feet, or 5 sets of stressed and unstressed syllables. In basic iambic pentameter, a line would have 5 feet of iambs, which is an unstressed and then a stressed syllable.

A lines meter is divided into five pairs of two syllables each; each line has to contain exactly ten syllables for the meter to be effective. Each syllable pair is known as an iambus, and though five of these were most prevalent in the works of Shakespeare, he often produced less or more in his writings, to add variety and colour to the words that were read.

However!

Not all of his plays were written in iambic pentameter, but they still use similar rhythms stressing alternate syllables. Looking at AMND 5.1, 354-421 (pg 82-83)
What

meter is used? Why might Shakespeare have written the fairies differently?

Several words in use during Shakespeare's day either have different meanings today or have been nearly forgotten. Shakespeare also invented many words and phrases that we use today. He invented over 1700 of our common words by changing nouns into verbs, changing verbs into adjectives, connecting words never before used together, adding prefixes and suffixes, and devising words wholly original.

Some of Shakespeares creations in AMND...

Fancy-free Bedroom Critical Swift as a shadow What fools these mortals be Moonbeam

Manager
home-spun Undistinguishable

Pale-faced
Insufficiency Preposterously

Mimic
Rival

Bashfulness
Flowery

Using your play notes and the list of words you should still have, make your own crossword of Shakespeare words and phrases using: http://www.armoredpenguin.com/crossword/ Have the Shakespearean word as the answer, and the meaning as your clue, aim for 20 words or phrases. After you click Make Puzzle, email the URL to the person next to you and when you receive theirs, click Solve Online and have a go!

Shakespeare also used many other poetic techniques in his plays and sonnets, such as:
Rhyming Puns

couplets

Double

entendres Soliloquy

What other language techniques can you find in AMND?

Using Elizabethan language and iambic pentameter write a scene (30 lines) that might happen before the action of the play.
Oberon discovers Titania has the Indian boy. Helena and Hermia talking when Helena and Demetrius were dating. Demetrius and Lysander talking when Helena and Demetrius were dating. Demetrius and Egeus talking when Demetrius first falls in love with Hermia. Nick Bottom in his job as a weaver. Or any other scene you can think of.

Make sure to include similar themes to the play, and have the characters behaving typical to how they did in the play
Hand in on Monday!