Student Question
Which words are stressed or unstressed in "Death, be not proud" according to monometer?
Quick answer:
In the poem "Death, be not proud," the rhythm is primarily iambic pentameter, meaning each line generally consists of five metrical feet, each with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. In the first four lines, stressed syllables include "Death," "proud," "some," "call," "Migh," "dread," "thou," "not," "those," "think'st," "thou," "o," "Die," "poor," "nor," "canst," "kill," and "me." Notably, the first foot of the second line is a trochee, a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one.
For a poem to be written in monometer means that there is only one metrical foot per line, and in monometer, the number of stressed syllables per line could be no more than one or two. As a Petrarchan sonnet, this poem is written in iambic pentameter, which means that there are five (penta-) feet per line, and the prevailing foot is the iamb (one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable). Thus, there ought to be five unstressed syllables per line and five stressed syllables per line. I will mark the stressed syllables with bold font and the divisions between iambs with a "|" symbol in the first four lines:
Death be | not proud | though some | have call | ed thee
Migh ty |and dread | ful for | thou art | not so
For those | whom thou | think'st thou | dost o | ver throw
Die not | poor Death | nor yet | canst thou | kill me.
Each foot above is an iamb except for the first foot of the second line, which I have underlined; this is a trochee: one stressed foot followed by one unstressed foot (essentially the opposite of an iamb). The use of one foot in place of another is called a substitution.
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