ABSTRACT
What is remarkable throughout its history is the degree of stability of the iambic pentameter. The metrical norm is a line of ten syllables, beginning with an unstressed syllable and ending with a stressed (x/ x/ x/ x/ x/). Apart from iambic pentameter, syllable-counting is not native to English metre: preferred instead is the counting of accents or stresses in the accentual tradition inherited from Old English, as in popular four-beat verse. So we can note the ‘regular’ pattern of
whereas the second line of the sonnet has the same number of syllables, but there is a departure from strict iambic rhythm in the placement of stresses. These follow the ‘natural’ rhythm of English, where major word classes (nouns; adjectives; main verbs) are stressed:
Even allowing for variation in stress placement (beginning the line, for example, with a stressed syllable rather than unstressed is very common), and allowing also for idiolectal variations between poets, there are still fairly strict rules
about what patterns may or may not be permitted in a line, which have been implicit throughout the history of iambic pentameter (e.g. / / / does not normally open a line, nor xx/x).
