Gratuitous Iambic Pentameter: Difference between revisions

Though often plainer words would suit much better,

 

 

<ref> An '''iamb''' is a pair of syllables where the stress falls on the second one - ba-DUM (if it goes DUM-ba it's a '''trochee'''). '''Penta'''meter is verse with five stressed syllables (tetrameter has four, heptameter has seven, etc), so iambic pentameter has five iambs (usually ten syllables, but odd unstressed ones at the beginning or end don't affect the meter much). This kind of verse is very common in [[Shakespeare]], as in for example "Un-EA-sy LIES the HEAD that WEARS a CROWN" ([[Henry IV Part 2]]). This trope can apply to any poetic dialogue though.</ref>

** Gaiman makes a hobby of writing poems in unusual verse formats that have fallen out of fashion, sometimes for centuries. The prevalence of them appearing in his comic work is pure [[Author Appeal]].

** In an early issue of ''[[The Sandman]]'', Lucifer claims that various poetic styles have been fashionable amongst demons at different times, and currently it happens to be rhyming.

* [[Rule of Three|Another]] [[Alan Moore]] example: Witch Wench, a 17th-century superheroine (and member of the time-travelling League of Infinity) introduced during Moore's run on ''[[Supreme]]''.

* [[Alan Moore]] [[Author Appeal|really loves]] his iambic pentameter; in The [[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]] book ''The Black Dossier'', the final passage features Prospero explaining at length(and in iambic pentameter) the importance of fiction. Makes sense, after all he ''is'' a character from Shakespeare.