Just wanted to point out that in the poem, it did actually rhyme. We dont see it because we look for the spelling but actually the sounds are similar. For example: dressed mistress, citadel 'and tell'. Its also quite interesting. You can see it a lot in Stevie Wonder lyrics
Citadel and tell are only near rhymes, not true rhymes. Dress and mistress would be true rhymes, but the past tense disrupts it. Blank verse relieves poems of the necessity to rhyme, but leaves them with the opportunity to rhyme outside of rules.
Good question. Blank verse is - predominantly - non-rhyming lines made up of ten syllables with the stress (in general) on syllables 2/4/6/8/10 (iambic pentameter). 'Nay, good Lysander. For my sake, my dear, Lie further off yet. Do not lie so near. (A Midsummer Night's Dream) In contrast, prose lines can be as short or long as you would like to make them and there is no overt patterning of the syllables as described above. For example: 'Ay, sir, that soaks up the king’s countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end. He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed to be last swallowed. When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you and, sponge, you shall be dry again.' (Hamlet) I hope that's helpful but do get in touch if you have any other questions.
Broadly speaking, blank verse sounds more conversational than rhymed verse - this is why it was used in Shakespearean drama. It sounds more conversational because each iambic line is normally ten syllables long, with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable; the length of each line plus the dominant stress pattern (unstressed/stressed) makes it sound broadly similar to spoken English. However, this comparison should be seen in relation to lines that rhyme and in relation to verse forms that have shorter or longer lines (tetrameter or hexameter for example), which you will notice sound much more like lines of poetry. I hope that brief explanation helps, but if you have another question please don't hesitate to ask.
A good question. It's all to do with relative stress (or emphasis). The easiest way to think about it is to look at a few words. If we take your question (above) we can try and identify which syllables might be stressed and unstressed. I will put the stressed syllables in capitals. HOW can you TELL WHETH/er a SYLL/a/ble is STRESSED or UN/stressed. You can see that normally you would put more stress on "HOW" compared to the word "can". But if you were CONFUSED and EXASPERATED then you might reverse that and say "How CAN you tell ... "' The word "WHETH/er" is also a good example. You can hear that you place more emphasis on the first part of the word than the second. If you try to reverse it and say "Wheth-ER" you will be able to hear what I mean. It sounds odd like this. With the words "STRESSED or": the word STRESSED would be emphasised more than the word "or" in a phrase. But, if you place "UN" in front of "stressed", then the emphasis changes a bit and the syllable "UN" has a bit more stress than the syllable "stressed". I hope this makes sense but if you want a few more examples just reply and I'll be happy to try and help.
Pleased to hear that this was of help. What follows is a longish answer, with a couple of lines at the end for you to experiment with. With the longer words, what you often find is that there is more stress on one syllable and then relatively little stress on the others. So to take your example - the word 'understand' - the greatest amount of stress is placed on the 'stand' syllable: under-STAND. You skip over the 'under' part of the word relatively quickly. If you make the word even longer - 'misunderstanding' then you get MIS-under-STAND-ing (noting there is probably a little more stress on STAND than MIS). So you can see that stress is relative, even with stressed syllables!. From a verse perspective, what you're looking out for is the relative pace of the lines and where it directs your attention. So a polysyllabic word is likely to have several weakly stressed syllables and will be read a little quicker than one with syllables that require greater stress. As mentioned above, this directs our attention to particular words. For example, take: this line from Romeo and Juliet: "Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!". If you read this aloud you will most probably read the first five syllables - Ancient DamNA(Y)tion - slightly more quickly than the second five, where you will probably want to slow down and put a bit more stress O MOST WICKèd FIEND. Let me know your thoughts. Very happy to provide more examples. It took me quite a while to understand this idea, but after analysing a few lines it begins to make sense. Try looking at these two lines and then put the stressed syllables in CAPITALS. Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much. Let me know when you've done this and then I'll reply with my scansion of these lines and what we could read from them (if you want to!). You don't need to post your scansion on here - but do try it yourself before I post my version.
Great. The only suggestions I would make would be as follows. The first line is from Romeo and Juliet (3.5.220-222): An EAGLE /maDAM Hath NOT /so GREEN, /so QUICK, /so FAIR /an EYE As PAR/is HATH So you were pretty much there. It seems to me to be a regular iambic line with the slightly greater stress on the second syllable of each iambic foot. So I would place stress on NOT and then on the final EYE. I think it's regular because she's stressing how perfect Paris is. The second line is Romeo and Juliet (3.5.231). Again, I would only change the stress slightly from the version you've suggested. WELL, thou /hast COM/fort/ed me/MARV/ellous MUCH Here the line is not as regular. It's sometimes easier to see the patterns when you divide the line into iambic feet using this sign / This suggests we start with what's called a Trochee where the stress is reversed (WELL thou), Then an iamb (hast COM), Then what's called a pyrrhic foot with very little stress on either syllable (fort ed), Then two iambs to finish (me MARV) and (ellous MUCH). You would pronounce 'ellous' as one syllable, so the entire word reads 'MARVlus'. We come away from the line with a sense of IRONY because she has not really been comforted. Hence the reason the line's not regular. So I'd say you did a good job. Try another few lines of your own choosing and scan them using the / sign to divide the feet up. If you want to ask more questions about this do get in touch. Also note that there's not always a RIGHT answer, because an actor could choose to stress a particular word for dramatic effect. I hope this is helpful.
If you are asking does Shakespeare write in blank verse then the answer is yes. However, if I have misunderstood your question do get in touch and I'll do my best to answer.
Wow! That was simplified to it's finest. I really appreciate that
This was quick and informative. Thanks for getting straight to the point. :)
Thank you: glad it was helpful.
Amazing. Thank you.
Rob. Thank you. I'm pleased that you enjoyed it.
Thanks. This helps me know what blank verse means.
Thank you for letting me know: I'm pleased it was helpful .
@@DrAidan thank you!
Just wanted to point out that in the poem, it did actually rhyme. We dont see it because we look for the spelling but actually the sounds are similar. For example: dressed mistress, citadel 'and tell'. Its also quite interesting. You can see it a lot in Stevie Wonder lyrics
Citadel and tell are only near rhymes, not true rhymes. Dress and mistress would be true rhymes, but the past tense disrupts it. Blank verse relieves poems of the necessity to rhyme, but leaves them with the opportunity to rhyme outside of rules.
Great video ! straight to the point, concise just what I need to study ! Thanks a lot ( I was the 400th Like, you deserved it )
Thank you. I’m extremely pleased that you found it useful and it’s very kind of you to let me know - and thank you for the 400th Like!
Really a simple and powerful answer about Blank verse..great job😁
Very glad to hear you enjoyed it!
This helped me on my Poetry project. Thank you!
Great. Thank you for letting me know. I'm pleased it was helpful.
@@DrAidan Same here. Thank you so much!
Dr Aidan people like u are the reason high schoolers graduate
Then what is the difference between blank verse and simply prose?
Good question.
Blank verse is - predominantly - non-rhyming lines made up of ten syllables with the stress (in general) on syllables 2/4/6/8/10 (iambic pentameter).
'Nay, good Lysander. For my sake, my dear,
Lie further off yet. Do not lie so near.
(A Midsummer Night's Dream)
In contrast, prose lines can be as short or long as you would like to make them and there is no overt patterning of the syllables as described above. For example:
'Ay, sir, that soaks up the king’s countenance, his
rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the
king best service in the end. He keeps them, like
an ape, in the corner of his jaw, first mouthed to
be last swallowed. When he needs what you
have gleaned, it is but squeezing you and,
sponge, you shall be dry again.' (Hamlet)
I hope that's helpful but do get in touch if you have any other questions.
Thanks
Thank you.... it's so useful for me..
What's the significance or effect?
Broadly speaking, blank verse sounds more conversational than rhymed verse - this is why it was used in Shakespearean drama. It sounds more conversational because each iambic line is normally ten syllables long, with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable; the length of each line plus the dominant stress pattern (unstressed/stressed) makes it sound broadly similar to spoken English. However, this comparison should be seen in relation to lines that rhyme and in relation to verse forms that have shorter or longer lines (tetrameter or hexameter for example), which you will notice sound much more like lines of poetry. I hope that brief explanation helps, but if you have another question please don't hesitate to ask.
A good question. It's all to do with relative stress (or emphasis). The easiest way to think about it is to look at a few words. If we take your question (above) we can try and identify which syllables might be stressed and unstressed. I will put the stressed syllables in capitals.
HOW can you TELL WHETH/er a SYLL/a/ble is STRESSED or UN/stressed.
You can see that normally you would put more stress on "HOW" compared to the word "can". But if you were CONFUSED and EXASPERATED then you might reverse that and say "How CAN you tell ... "'
The word "WHETH/er" is also a good example. You can hear that you place more emphasis on the first part of the word than the second. If you try to reverse it and say "Wheth-ER" you will be able to hear what I mean. It sounds odd like this.
With the words "STRESSED or": the word STRESSED would be emphasised more than the word "or" in a phrase. But, if you place "UN" in front of "stressed", then the emphasis changes a bit and the syllable "UN" has a bit more stress than the syllable "stressed".
I hope this makes sense but if you want a few more examples just reply and I'll be happy to try and help.
Pleased to hear that this was of help. What follows is a longish answer, with a couple of lines at the end for you to experiment with.
With the longer words, what you often find is that there is more stress on one syllable and then relatively little stress on the others. So to take your example - the word 'understand' - the greatest amount of stress is placed on the 'stand' syllable: under-STAND. You skip over the 'under' part of the word relatively quickly. If you make the word even longer - 'misunderstanding' then you get MIS-under-STAND-ing (noting there is probably a little more stress on STAND than MIS). So you can see that stress is relative, even with stressed syllables!.
From a verse perspective, what you're looking out for is the relative pace of the lines and where it directs your attention.
So a polysyllabic word is likely to have several weakly stressed syllables and will be read a little quicker than one with syllables that require greater stress. As mentioned above, this directs our attention to particular words. For example, take: this line from Romeo and Juliet: "Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend!". If you read this aloud you will most probably read the first five syllables - Ancient DamNA(Y)tion - slightly more quickly than the second five, where you will probably want to slow down and put a bit more stress O MOST WICKèd FIEND.
Let me know your thoughts. Very happy to provide more examples. It took me quite a while to understand this idea, but after analysing a few lines it begins to make sense. Try looking at these two lines and then put the stressed syllables in CAPITALS.
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.
Let me know when you've done this and then I'll reply with my scansion of these lines and what we could read from them (if you want to!). You don't need to post your scansion on here - but do try it yourself before I post my version.
Great. The only suggestions I would make would be as follows. The first line is from Romeo and Juliet (3.5.220-222):
An EAGLE /maDAM
Hath NOT /so GREEN, /so QUICK, /so FAIR /an EYE
As PAR/is HATH
So you were pretty much there. It seems to me to be a regular iambic line with the slightly greater stress on the second syllable of each iambic foot. So I would place stress on NOT and then on the final EYE. I think it's regular because she's stressing how perfect Paris is.
The second line is Romeo and Juliet (3.5.231). Again, I would only change the stress slightly from the version you've suggested.
WELL, thou /hast COM/fort/ed me/MARV/ellous MUCH
Here the line is not as regular. It's sometimes easier to see the patterns when you divide the line into iambic feet using this sign /
This suggests we start with what's called a Trochee where the stress is reversed (WELL thou),
Then an iamb (hast COM),
Then what's called a pyrrhic foot with very little stress on either syllable (fort ed),
Then two iambs to finish (me MARV) and (ellous MUCH). You would pronounce 'ellous' as one syllable, so the entire word reads 'MARVlus'.
We come away from the line with a sense of IRONY because she has not really been comforted. Hence the reason the line's not regular.
So I'd say you did a good job. Try another few lines of your own choosing and scan them using the / sign to divide the feet up. If you want to ask more questions about this do get in touch. Also note that there's not always a RIGHT answer, because an actor could choose to stress a particular word for dramatic effect.
I hope this is helpful.
@@DrAidan thanks
What is the background music called?
Good job..👍👌
Thank you. Glad you liked it.
Very well explained. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
THANK YOU.
Is it written by Shakespeare?
Please answer me
If you are asking does Shakespeare write in blank verse then the answer is yes. However, if I have misunderstood your question do get in touch and I'll do my best to answer.
@@DrAidan whole part
why did my school explain it in a weird way 😭
swearr
Blank verse is rhythm without rhyme.
Iambic pentameter is not necessary.
Still confused stsu