An Iamb is a type of
Foot. A Foot is the basic unit of Accentual-Syllabic
meter. Meter basically means structuring a line of
poetry in regular and equal units of
rhythm. Accentual-Syllabic meter uses both the
number of
syllables and the
location of stressed syllables within a Foot to
structure a line. An Iamb is a two-syllable Foot with the
stress placed on the 2nd
syllable, as in "
New York." Notice how the second syllable is stressed more than the
first? You can find how
words are accented in any dictionary, but it really shouldn't be necessary to go to such
trouble; just say them
out loud and
listen. Often
context determines which word or syllable is stressed in a foot, and you need to be
aware of how your context might alter the
stress in a particular foot. For example, in the
sentence "I like your car," car would
normally be stressed more than your.
However, in "What do you mean your car?" the stress would be placed on your.
A Pentameter is a line of poetry constructed of 5 Feet, or units of rhythm. An Iambic Pentameter then is a line consisting of 5 Iambs, or two syllable Feet with the stress falling on the 2nd syllable of each foot. Or you might say it is a 10-syllable line with the stresses beginning on the 2nd syllable and falling on every other syllable thereafter.