Iambic Pentameter: Meaning, Examples and Checker
Iambic pentameter is a line of poetry made of five iambs. An iamb is a pair of syllables with the stress on the second one: da-DUM. Five of them in a row give a line of 10 syllables that sounds like a heartbeat: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM.
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
shall I com PARE thee TO a SUM mer’s DAY
Shakespeare wrote most of his plays and all of his sonnets in this rhythm, and poets still use it today because it sits close to the natural beat of spoken English. Type a line into the checker below to see its syllables, its stresses and how close it comes to the pattern, then read on for examples, the common variations and a step-by-step guide to writing your own.
Iambic Pentameter Checker
What is iambic pentameter?
Definition: iambic pentameter is a meter in which each line has five feet, and each foot is an iamb: one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable. A standard line therefore has 10 syllables, with the stress falling on syllables 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10.
The name explains the meaning in two parts:
- Iambic comes from iamb, the da-DUM foot. Words such as again (a-GAIN), today (to-DAY) and alone (a-LONE) are iambs on their own.
- Pentameter comes from the Greek penta, five, and meter, measure. It means five feet per line.
A foot is the basic unit of rhythm in a line of poetry. The meter of a poem tells you which kind of foot it uses and how many feet sit in each line.
The da-DUM beat: how stress works in a line
Every English word of two or more syllables has one syllable that is said a little louder, longer and higher than the others. That is the stressed syllable. In window the stress is on the first part (WIN-dow); in again it is on the second (a-GAIN).
Iambic pentameter arranges words so that unstressed and stressed syllables take turns, starting with an unstressed one. Short words such as the, a, to, and, of and in are usually unstressed. Nouns, verbs and adjectives of one syllable, such as light, day and love, are usually stressed.
| Word | Syllables | Stress pattern | Fits an iamb? |
|---|---|---|---|
| again | a-GAIN | da-DUM | Yes, on its own |
| today | to-DAY | da-DUM | Yes, on its own |
| summer | SUM-mer | DUM-da | Yes, if an unstressed syllable comes before it: a SUM-mer |
| remember | re-MEM-ber | da-DUM-da | Yes, across two feet: re-MEM | ber ... |
| beautiful | BEAU-ti-ful | DUM-da-da | Harder: needs careful placement |
Not sure where the stress falls in a word? Look it up in our syllable dictionary, which shows the syllables and the stressed part for every word, or count a whole line with the syllable counter.
How to scan a line of iambic pentameter
Marking the stresses in a line is called scanning, or scansion. You can do it in four steps:
- Count the syllables. A regular line has 10. If you find 11, check whether the last syllable is unstressed (see variations below).
- Mark the stress in each longer word. Say the word out loud or check a dictionary: com-PARE, SUM-mer.
- Fill in the short words. Let small words such as a, the and to take the unstressed beats, and let important one-syllable words take the stressed beats.
- Split the line into five pairs and check that most pairs go da-DUM. Write unstressed syllables in lower case and stressed ones in capitals, or use the marks x and / above them.
But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?
but SOFT what LIGHT through YON der WIN dow BREAKS
Notice that the feet do not have to match the word breaks. Yonder and window are both split across two feet, which is normal.
Iambic pentameter examples
These famous lines all follow the pattern. Paste any of them into the checker above to see the scansion.
| Line | Source | Syllables |
|---|---|---|
| Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? | Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 | 10 |
| But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? | Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet | 10 |
| If music be the food of love, play on | Shakespeare, Twelfth Night | 10 |
| When I have fears that I may cease to be | John Keats, 1818 | 10 |
| Now is the winter of our discontent | Shakespeare, Richard III | 10 (starts with DUM-da) |
| To be, or not to be, that is the question | Shakespeare, Hamlet | 11 (extra unstressed ending) |
Two original lines of our own, written to show the pattern in everyday language:
The morning light comes softly through the trees
the MOR ning LIGHT comes SOFT ly THROUGH the TREES
I walk along the river after rain
I WALK a LONG the RIV er AF ter RAIN
Iambic pentameter in poems and plays
Iambic pentameter is the most common meter in English poetry. You will meet it in three main forms:
- Sonnets. A sonnet is a 14-line poem, usually written in iambic pentameter with a set rhyme scheme. Shakespeare wrote 154 of them.
- Blank verse. Unrhymed iambic pentameter. Most of the speeches in Shakespeare’s plays and all of Milton’s Paradise Lost are blank verse.
- Heroic couplets. Pairs of rhyming lines in iambic pentameter, used by Chaucer, Pope and Dryden.
Poets like it because ten syllables is about the length of one breath, and the rising da-DUM beat is close to how English is spoken. That makes it sound natural, even musical, without feeling forced.
Common variations
Very few poems are perfectly regular. Poets change the pattern on purpose to stress a word, slow a line down or avoid sounding like a metronome. These are the variations you will see most often:
| Variation | What happens | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Feminine ending | An extra unstressed syllable at the end, giving 11 syllables | To BE, or NOT to BE, that IS the QUES-tion |
| Trochaic inversion | The first foot flips to DUM-da | NOW is the WIN-ter OF our DIS-con-TENT |
| Spondee | Two stressed syllables side by side | Used for weight on words such as "dead men" |
| Headless line | The first unstressed syllable is missing, giving 9 syllables | Rare, mostly in older verse |
The checker allows for these: it flags a line as close to iambic pentameter when it has 10 or 11 syllables and most of its stresses fall in the even positions.
Iambic pentameter and other meters
Iambic pentameter is one combination of a foot and a line length. Changing either part gives a different meter.
| Foot | Pattern | Example word |
|---|---|---|
| Iamb | da-DUM | a-GAIN |
| Trochee | DUM-da | WIN-ter |
| Anapest | da-da-DUM | un-der-STAND |
| Dactyl | DUM-da-da | BEAU-ti-ful |
| Spondee | DUM-DUM | HEART-BREAK |
| Feet per line | Name | Syllables in an iambic line |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Trimeter | 6 |
| 4 | Tetrameter | 8 |
| 5 | Pentameter | 10 |
| 6 | Hexameter | 12 |
So a line of four iambs is iambic tetrameter (8 syllables), and a line of five trochees is trochaic pentameter. For a much shorter form with its own pattern, see our guide to haiku.
How to write in iambic pentameter
- Start with a sentence you would actually say. Iambic pentameter works best when it sounds like natural speech.
- Count to 10. Trim or add words until the line has 10 syllables. Our word lists by syllable count help when you are one beat short or long.
- Put the important words on the even beats. Nouns, verbs and adjectives belong on positions 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10.
- Use small words as the unstressed beats. Words such as the, a, to, of, and and in fill the odd positions.
- Choose words with the right stress. Words that go da-DUM, such as again, today and begin, fit anywhere. Words that go DUM-da, such as summer and river, need an unstressed syllable in front of them.
- Read it aloud and test it. Paste the line into the checker. If a stress lands in the wrong place, swap a word or change the word order.
- Vary it on purpose. Once the pattern feels easy, try a feminine ending or a flipped first foot for emphasis.
How the iambic pentameter checker works
The checker splits your line into words, finds the syllables and the dictionary stress of each word, and then compares the result with the da-DUM pattern. One-syllable words can be stressed or unstressed depending on the sentence, so the checker treats them as flexible and fills them in the way that fits the meter best.
Use the result as a guide rather than a final verdict. Stress depends on meaning and on how you read the line, and two good readers can scan the same line differently. If the checker disagrees with your ear, trust your ear and check the words in the syllable dictionary.
Frequently asked questions
What is iambic pentameter in simple words?
It is a line of poetry with 10 syllables that go da-DUM five times, with the stress on every second syllable.
Does iambic pentameter always have 10 syllables?
A regular line has 10. Lines with an extra unstressed syllable at the end (a feminine ending) have 11, and a few lines that drop the first syllable have 9.
Does iambic pentameter have to rhyme?
No. Rhymed iambic pentameter is used in sonnets and heroic couplets, while unrhymed iambic pentameter is called blank verse.
Why did Shakespeare use iambic pentameter?
It was the standard verse form of his time, it is close to the rhythm of natural English speech, and it is easy for actors to remember and deliver.
Is "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day" iambic pentameter?
Yes. It has 10 syllables and five iambs: shall I | com-PARE | thee TO | a SUM | mer’s DAY.
What is the difference between iambic pentameter and blank verse?
Blank verse is iambic pentameter that does not rhyme. All blank verse is iambic pentameter, but iambic pentameter can also rhyme.
What is an iamb?
An iamb is a metrical foot of two syllables, unstressed then stressed, as in a-GAIN or to-DAY.
How do I check if a line is in iambic pentameter?
Count the syllables, mark the stressed ones and see whether the stresses fall on syllables 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. The free checker on this page does this for you.
Keep learning
New to syllables? Start with what a syllable is and how to count syllables. For other poetry forms, try the haiku checker, and browse all our syllable guides.