# Shakespeare and Iambic Pentameter. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2006, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-and-iambic-pentameter/354054 "2006-04-24T21:45:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-and-iambic-pentameter/354054/21 "2006-04-26T05:39:43Z")
> [@Tracy Lord](#): > > Iago rhymes occasionally when he’s trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes. Richard III rhymes frequently as well, but instead of rhyming with himself like Iago, Richard tends to complete other characters’ rhymes. The wooing scene with Lady Anne is full of those. 🙂 That’s one of the wonderful things about Shakespeare. He didn’t do anything by accident. ---
**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:** [April 26, 2006, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-and-iambic-pentameter/354054/22 "2006-04-26T05:43:07Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Nitpick: “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is in iambic _tetrameter_. But I’m sure you knew that. Good catch! I meant it to be, of course, as an example of a poem consisting purely of iambs, but, in my haste, neglected to notice how many feet per line. Therefore, I can’t think of any canonical poem in English that is written solely in iambic pentameter. If you did write such a poem, the lack of variance in the meter would be incredibly dull and boring. (Except, as in the Frost example, where its used exactly for this lulling effect.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shakespeare-and-iambic-pentameter/354054.md?page=1)