Can You Write in Shakespeareanese?

Hey kids! If you'll bear with me to the end of this long-winded article, you will be able to write your own SHAKESPEAREAN COMPLIMENT just in time for Valentine's Day!

No kidding and for reals!

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As a parent, I often speak in poetry. The other day, I saw my daughter drawing with permanent marker on the wall and I said to her, "Don't you do that again or I'll spank your bottom!" Then I realized: I just said a poem. Say it yourself out loud in an angry way. It'll sound like this:

"DON'T you DO that aGAIN or I'll SPANK your BOTtom." There is a real and logical rhythm to my words and the way the syllables are stressed.

Shakespeare and his contemporaries were no dummies. They realized that folks naturally speak in poetry quite often. They also discovered that writing in poetry creates a play text that is easy to memorize and can give clues to actors as to how they should deliver their lines.

Most of Shakespeare's plays are written, at least partially, in poetry. The type of poetry he used is called iambic pentameter. This simply means that he uses pentameter made of iambs. It sounds like this:

daDUM daDum daDUM daDUM daDUM

Pentameter can be divided to read penta-meter, or "five-meter", --or a poetic line with five stressed rhythms called feet ("daDUM" is a foot, see?). Iambs are made of two syllables, with the stressed syllable being second, as in the word "toDAY" (daDUM). Iambic pentameter is the most natural sounding poetry that can be spoken. (If you need additional guidance as to what is iambic pentameter, click here. If you can't remember exactly what a syllable is, click here immediately!Or here!Or here!)

A simple example of iambic pentameter, often called blank verse, would be:

See? Five feet, and each foot is an iamb. Here is a line from Shakespeare:

Bellieve it or not, this line can be said naturally. Try saying it as if you were looking up and seeing a light in a window above you (you can even pretend it's Juliet—or Romeo!). See how natural variation takes over when your mind tries to communicate images?

Shakespeare often broke his own rules, though. Take this famous line from Hamlet:

See how he messes up his nice iambic pentamer in the middle? The words BE and THAT are back-to-back stressed syllables. Oops. On the other hand, see what it forces the actor and audience to do: we have to "trip" over that section of the line, giving it more attention, especially to the word THAT, which ends up being the loudest and most important word of the line. Say it out loud and see! See? Shakespeare did this a lot. Well, not a lot, but he did it quite often and when it was appropriate. I guess it's true: rules were meant to be broken.

Here is another example of how Shakespeare "cheated" with is iambic pentameter. Take this line from Troilus and Cressida:

In this line, he forces INDIA, a three syllable word, into two syllables: essentially, "Ind-ya" rather than "Ind-dee-a." Clever fellow that Will! How does saying it like "Ind-ya" help create character? Who would speak like that? Someone aristocratic, no doubt.

And here's something cool: two lines of blank verse in succession (from Romeo and Juliet):

Shakespeare has many lines of blank verse in succession. Once you get the hang of it, and are into the rhythm of it, it's fun, easy, and it flows!

Remember: (If you need additional guidance as to what is iambic pentameter, click here. If you can't remember exactly what a syllable is, click here immediately!Or here!Or here!)

Just in time for Valentine's Day, here is your assignment, should you choose to accept it: write a compliment in blank verse (iambic pentameter). You may write more than one if you desire! Keep it simple and keep it PURE iambic pentamer. Here are some examples:

"Your hair is soft and lovely as the moon." = "your HAIR is SOFT and LOVely LIKE the MOON."

"I love your winning smile and gentle hands." = "i LOVE your WINning SMILE and GENtle HANDS."

"I like the way you walk upon the floor." = "i LIKE the WAY you WALK upON the FLOOR."

"O' Gather is a fine and lovely place." = "o GAther IS a FINE and LOVEly PLACE."

It is easy to see if you've done it right. Simply put your stressed syllables in capital letters and make sure that every other syllable is stressed, that you begin with an unstressed syllable and end with a STRESSED syllable. No word should "sound funny" or abnormal when you are finished. The word "today" should still sound like "toDAY" and not "TOday," which freaks everybody out because no one says TOday, we all say toDAY.

One more thing: a word with only one syllable cannot be divided into two, like this: plEASE. It just doesn't work. Unless the word is "puh-LEASE!" spoken by a ditz. (If you need additional guidance as to what is iambic pentameter, click here. If you can't remember exactly what a syllable is, click here immediately!Or here!Or here!)

You can check it yourself with David's Amazing-Three-Step-Iambic-Pentameter-Checkerbelow:

1. STEP #1: Make sure your sentence has ONLY 10 SYLLABLES! No more. No less. Remember, every word in the world has a least one syllable in it. Need help getting exactly 10 syllables? Click here for a syllable counter!You can't possibly have more than 10 syllables if you use this tool! Be syllable-proof!
2. STEP #2: Make sure every other syllable is STRESSED. Every two syllables equals one iambic foot. Easy!
3. STEP #3: Make sure you start with an unstressed syllable and end with a STRESSED one. Easy!

Hey, you Shakespearean poet guru, remember to say the compliment out loud to your Valentine! You have a whole week and and a half to get it right, so practice, practice, practice! Go ahead an put your Shakespearean compiment in a comment below! Then we can all be inspired for Valentine's Day!

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For more on iambic pentameter, click here.
For help in writing love poems to your sweetie, click here.
For some Shakespeare Quotations, you can click here.