What is the unrhymed iambic pentameter style used by Milton in `Paradise Lost' and 'Wordsworth in 'The Prelude' better known?
Metre (poetry) English verse is the iambic pentameter, in which the metrical norm is five iambic feet per line, though metrical substitution is common and rhythmic variations practically inexhaustible. John Milton's "Paradise Lost", most sonnets, and much else besides in English are written in iambic pentameter. Lines of unrhymed iambic pentameter are commonly known as blank verse. Blank verse in the English language is most famously represented in the plays of William Shakespeare and the great works of Milton, though Tennyson ("Ulysses", "The Princess") and Wordsworth ("The Prelude") also make notable use of it. A rhymed pair of lines of iambic pentameter
Iambic pentameter the examples show, iambic pentameter need not consist entirely of iambs, nor need it have ten syllables. Most poets who have a great facility for iambic pentameter frequently vary the rhythm of their poetry as Donne and Shakespeare do in the examples, both to create a more interesting overall rhythm and to highlight important thematic elements. In fact, the skillful "variation" of iambic pentameter, rather than the consistent use of it, may well be what distinguishes the rhythmic artistry of Donne, Shakespeare, Milton, and the 20th century sonneteer Edna St. Vincent Millay. Several scholars have argued that iambic pentameter has