# Iambic Pentameter **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 13, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iambic-pentameter/181573 "2003-06-13T14:45:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iambic-pentameter/181573/21 "2003-06-18T20:46:45Z")
I wish I was an Oscar Meyer Wein– er, that is what I truly wish to be… ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2003, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iambic-pentameter/181573/22 "2003-06-18T22:45:28Z")
Tweety Pie seems to speak largely in iambs. Another resemblance between him (her?) and Eminem. Beyond the hair, I mean: I dought I daw a pwutty-cat a-cweeping up on me. ---
**Author:** ![elephant\_shoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@elephant\_shoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elephant_shoes)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iambic-pentameter/181573/23 "2003-06-19T00:57:27Z")
As it’s been said above, iambic pentameter is not so far from our our own patterns of speech. I think it’s appealing to folks in part because it is so close to the body’s natural rhythm - the heartbeat. Think of it that way, and listen to Lose Yourself. The beat in that song is very much like a sped up heartbeat. It has an anxious feel that mirrors the rhyme itself. I don’t think your friend is too far off the idea, at least. Easy to get tricked when you know just a little about something. But we’re learnin’! ---
**Author:** ![elephant\_shoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c77e96/32.png) [@elephant\_shoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elephant_shoes)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iambic-pentameter/181573/24 "2003-06-19T00:59:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by elephant shoes \* > \*\*…iambic pentameter is not so far from our our own patterns of speech. \*\* Blast. She stutters in a post on iambic pentameter. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iambic-pentameter/181573/25 "2003-06-19T05:31:10Z")
“Lose Yourself”, like other rap songs I’ve heard, is in strong-stress meter, the original meter of old Anglo-Saxon poetry. Not only is this new-fangled teenybopper music a thousand years old, but when they first used the verse form, half the time it was for ballads of warriors killing each other. The more things change . . . ---
**Author:** ![MusicJunkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@MusicJunkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MusicJunkie)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iambic-pentameter/181573/26 "2003-06-19T06:03:37Z")
Isn’t “Tales of Brave Ulysses” by Cream in iambic pentameter? ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iambic-pentameter/181573/27 "2003-06-19T08:21:33Z")
Tales of Brave Ulysses wasn’t a song though, was it? ---
**Author:** ![mooka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@mooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mooka)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iambic-pentameter/181573/28 "2003-06-19T13:05:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by coffeecat \* > \*\*“Lose Yourself”, like other rap songs I’ve heard, is in strong-stress meter, the original meter of old Anglo-Saxon poetry. Not only is this new-fangled teenybopper music a thousand years old, but when they first used the verse form, half the time it was for ballads of warriors killing each other. The more things change . . . \*\* Really? Thats very interesting… Do you have any more information on it, or links or something? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iambic-pentameter/181573/29 "2003-06-19T16:44:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by coffeecat \* > \*\*“Lose Yourself”, like other rap songs I’ve heard, is in strong-stress meter, the original meter of old Anglo-Saxon poetry. Not only is this new-fangled teenybopper music a thousand years old, but when they first used the verse form, half the time it was for ballads of warriors killing each other. The more things change . . . \*\* Yes. Exactly. I would say a majority of pop songs, children’s rhymes and the such are based on strong-stress meter. This is also known as accentual meter, and **mooka** you can read up on my posts above which explain this style. Other nursery rhyme examples: HICKory DICKory DOCK the MOUSE ran UP the CLOCK (dactyl, dactyl, lone stress iamb, iamb, iamb) Or pop song example of ballad stucture (tetrameter-trimeter alternating): there a LAdy who’s SURE all that GLITters is GOLD and she’s BUYing a STAIRway to HEAVen there’s a SIGN on the WALL but she WANTS to be SURE cuz you KNOW sometime WORDS have two MEANings This, actually, is pretty regular anapestic meter. Another poet who did pretty revolutionary work in accentual meter is Gerard Manly Hopkins, who came up with a system called “sprung” meter, in which each foot began with an accented syllable with a variable number of unstressed syllables in between. If you understand music, then you can understand why accentual meter is much better suited for lyrics than traditional accentual-syllabic forms. Rhythmic variation in music is often dependent on varying the number of unstressed syllables in between each accent. Unstressed syllables get a shorter time value (1/2 - 1/3 of an accented syllable) and stressed syllables usually fall on the beat in a song. (Not universally true, of course, but in general this is the case.) Following an accentual-syllabic form makes it much more difficult to create rhythmic variety musically, at least in my opinion and from my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Fatwater\_Fewl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4491bb/32.png) [@Fatwater\_Fewl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fatwater_Fewl)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iambic-pentameter/181573/30 "2003-06-19T18:06:27Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by coffeecat_ > “Lose Yourself”, like other rap songs I’ve heard, is in strong-stress meter, the original meter of old Anglo-Saxon poetry. Not only is this new-fangled teenybopper music a thousand years old, but when they first used the verse form, half the time it was for ballads of warriors killing each other. The more things change . . . > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mooka \*Really? Thats very interesting… Do you have any more information on it, or links or something? According to Seamus Heaney, in the introduction to his translation of Beowulf (published by Norton, 2000), the requirements of the Anglo-Saxon metric are that the line be made up of two balancing halves divided by a caesura (or full stop between). Each half contains two stressed syllables, and the halves are generally linked by alliteration across the caesura. For example, lines loosely about this topic might be written like this: ```auto Eminem is empty of empircal iambs -- Just as I am empty of justice to his words Perhaps I will listen to his lines tonight More likely I'll forget (I favour Johnny Cash) ``` Here’s a translation of the [The Ruin](http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~aczsjm/wap/angsp.html). I recommend Heaney’s translation of Beowulf. Very fine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iambic-pentameter/181573.md?page=1)