Gotta love iambic pentameter

[Red Pilgrim]

What is the best way to form lines in iambic pentameter? Currently I've just been trying to arrange words differently but I can't imagine that would be the best way to go about it.

Also, how is it that in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "Sonnet 43" "how" is considered an unstressed syllable.

[Scheherazade]

It is 'pentameter' actually and I have changed the title for you. ;)

Welcome to the Forum!

[Literary_Cat]

Hmm. My sagest advice about how to write poetry is: Don't. Write prose instead. ;)

[Red Pilgrim]

Apparently in my haste to make the post I neglected the obvious. Thank you for the title change though.

[Red Pilgrim]

"Very well, then, let it (The Divine Comedy) be prose, if one insists on folly."

"Nothing happens into a good poem; everything must be chosen into it."

Hah, as said by John Ciardi, I believe.

[TheFifthElement]

There's a really good site called www.sonnetwriters.com which has a listing of iambic words, which should help you in putting together iambic pentameter (it's not a very long list!). In practice it's quite difficult, as you can't account for regional variations in pronunciation, so best to work on the basis that if it's iambic for you, then it's probably good enough.

[Red Pilgrim]

Thank you, that site helps a lot.