In the Elizabethan sonnet do you know if there is a metre in the poem?

The Elizabethan sonnet is written in Iambic Pentameter, that is 5 feet per line. Iambic means that each line begins with an unstressed syllable.

JUST A MINOR FOOTNOTE about the opinion that "Iambic means that each line begins with an unstressed syllable."

The iambic foot has two beats, the first unstressed, the second stressed. The words "above," "below," and "suggest" are iambs. Similarly, the phrases "to me," "but thou," and "from fair" are iambs.

Although the so-called Elizabethan sonnet is written in iambic pentameter, and many lines, perhaps most, do open with an iambic foot, not all lines do so; nor does the meter run consistently and tediously, da DUM, da Dum, da DUM throughout the poem.

Here are just a few of many lines in Shakespeare's sonnets that do not open with an iamb:

--Pity the world, or else this glutton be....
--Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel....
--Making a famine where abundance lies....
--Proving his beauty by succession thine....
--Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend....
--Profitless usurer why dost thou use....

Such deviations from strict measure are more artistic than is monotonous restriction to the iambic beat and are completely consistent with our judging that the sonnets are written in "iambic pentameter."

First answer by DHatt. Last edit by Spelvin. Contributor trust: 187 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 24 [recommend question]