Blank verse

Blank verse is unrhymed poetry written in regular meter, most often iambic pentameter in English. Its flexible rhythm has made it a major form for drama and long poems.

Iambic pentameter: A poetic meter with five iambic feet, each typically pairing an unstressed syllable with a stressed one. Its five-beat line is the standard English pattern behind blank verse.
Doctor Faustus: A tragedy by Christopher Marlowe about a scholar who sells his soul to Lucifer. Marlowe’s forceful verse helped establish blank verse as a vehicle for tragic drama.
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey: An English poet and courtier who introduced unrhymed iambic pentameter into English verse in his translation of the Aeneid. His translation is an early landmark in the English use of blank verse.
Rhymed verse: Poetry in which line endings follow a pattern of matching or related sounds. Blank verse retains meter while dispensing with the end-rhyme that defines this form.
English Renaissance theatre: The professional theatre culture that flourished in England from the late sixteenth to the early seventeenth century. Blank verse became a central medium of its serious stage plays.
Iamb: A metrical foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Repeated iambs give blank verse its characteristic rising movement.
Hamlet: A tragedy by William Shakespeare about the Danish prince who seeks revenge for his father’s murder. Its speeches show blank verse accommodating debate, hesitation, and emotional intensity.
Aeneid: An epic poem by Virgil recounting the journey of Aeneas from Troy to Italy and the origins of Rome. Surrey’s unrhymed pentameter translation helped bring the form into English poetry.
Free verse: Poetry that does not follow a regular meter or a fixed rhyme scheme. Unlike free verse, blank verse depends on an underlying metrical pattern.
Tragedy: A dramatic genre in which serious conflict leads to suffering, loss, or catastrophe. Blank verse gives tragic characters an elevated but speech-like dramatic voice.

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