Here are some examples that you’ll probably be familiar with. While he did not invent it, William Shakespeare frequently used iambic pentameter in his plays and sonnets. In the example below, one of Shakespeare’s most famous sonnets, he collapses several words with apostrophes so they fit within the requisite number of ten syllables per line: the two syllables of owest down one for ow’st, the three syllables of wanderest down to two for wand’rest, and the two syllables of growest down one for grow’st. Iambic pentameter is a style of poetry, which refers to a certain number of syllables in a line and the emphasis placed on the syllables. An iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Iambic pentameter also de-emphasizes the rhyme at the end of each line, since it falls on one of the regularly accented syllables, therefore giving it no more weight in the line than any of the other accented syllables. A line of iambic pentameter consists of 10 syllables, or five iambs of two syllables each. Iambic pentameter (/ a æ m b k p n t æ m t r / eye-AM-bik pen-TAM-it-r) is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama.The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called 'feet'. This allowed the flow of each line of poetry to seem as familiar as possible to both readers and listeners.

Writers in Shakespeare’s era believed that iambic pentameter most closely matched the normal speaking patterns of native English speakers. Each line is written in iambic pentameter, meaning that each lines contains exactly ten syllables, every other one accented.

Shakespeare also followed another rule that was popular during his era but far less now.

Iambic pentameter shakespearean sonnet