Dec 31, 2009

If | Style

Iambic Pentameter and Rhyme

“If” is written in iambic pentameter, a form readers of Shakespeare will be familiar with, as the bard most often wrote in this style. Iambic pentameter consists of lines of five “feet” (two-syllable units) formed from an initial unstressed syllable and a second stressed syllable, as in the word “because.” The eleven-syllable lines each end with an extra, unstressed syllable.

The poem is also written in four stanzas of eight rhyming lines, according to the pattern abab cdcd. “If” takes its name from the repetition...