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Why is the "all the world's a stage" passage in As You Like It written in blank verse?

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The "all the world's a stage" passage is written in blank verse, or unrhymed iambic pentameter, because it was Shakespeare's standard meter for dramatic writing, offering a rhythmic flow that adds gravitas. This form allows speeches to stand alone as memorable monologues with philosophical depth, as seen in Jacques' reflection on life's stages. Deviations from the meter add variety and mimic natural speech, preventing monotony and enhancing dramatic effect.

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It would actually be more unusual to find a lengthy speech in one of William Shakespeare’s plays that was not written in blank verse. Unrhymed iambic pentameter, also known as blank verse, is the standard meter and length that the playwright uses throughout his plays. An “iamb” (from the Greek) is one unit of meter, consisting of one unstressed and one stressed syllable. The number of metric units in a line is referred to with a Greek prefix; “iambic pentameter” is five units, while “hexameter” would be six.

It is worth noting, however, that Jacques’s monologue , although predominantly in iambic pentameter, sometimes deviates significantly. This is most notable in the first line, which starts with a stressed “all,” has only three stressed and two unstressed syllables; it is trimeter rather than pentameter. Starting with the stressed word is a stronger opening, and the shorter line length can alert...

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the audience that the following lines will be something other than ordinary dialogue. In the second line, Shakespeare ends with the unstressed syllable of “players,” thus slowing the pace a bit. By occasionally omitting or adding syllables from the normal rhythmic pattern, the author adds variety and makes the lines more closely resemble normal speech. Both are an important qualities to help keep a long speech from seeming monotonous. Lines 6 and 10–14 all begin with a stressed syllable; further, several of them begin with participles, which provides unity: mewling, sighing, seeking, and (farther down), turning each starts a line.

When Shakespeare uses rhyme, it is generally to clinch a speech or to mark the end of a scene or a section of a scene. In As You Like It, an example of a rhymed conclusion occurs at the end of Act I, Scene 2, as Orlando is leaving the court. He throws in one more short phrase, revealing his fascination with the girl he just met.

Thus must I from the smoke into the smother;
From tyrant duke unto a tyrant brother:
But heavenly Rosalind!
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Blank verse is another term for unrhymed iambic pentameter, the very specific format Shakespeare used in most of his plays and nearly all of his sonnets. While Shakespeare also used rhyming verse and prose format in some of his plays occasionally, the overwhelming content of his dramatic writing is in this form. This famous speech in As You Like It is delivered by Jacques, an older man who is something of a fool but also a mentor figure. The speech describes the stages of a man's life, and is meant to be a moment of teaching and entertainment for those present, but also is constructed to stand alone as a memorable and self-contained monologue that has more general appeal.

This kind of passage, which fulfills a dramatic purpose but is also a somewhat philosophical exploration in its own right, and which has a more general context beyond the specific one of the scene in which it occurs, is found throughout Shakespeare's plays. A similar example, also in iambic pentameter, might be Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech, which is not only referring to Hamlet's own specific situation, but is a generally thoughtful meditation on taking one's own life when one is unhappy. Iambic pentameter has a rhythmic flow that lends itself to dramatic modes of speech, and therefore its use in these kinds of passages lends a kind of gravitas and seriousness, even within a comedy such as As You Like It.

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