iambic pentameter

iambic pentameter, in poetry, a line of verse composed of ten syllables arranged in five metrical feet (iambs), each of which consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The line can be rhymed, as in sonnets or heroic couplets (pairs of end-rhymed lines found in epic or narrative poetry), or unrhymed, as in blank verse. The term derives from the Greek words iambos (“metrical foot”) and pentametros (“having five metrical feet”). This...