Hopefully it helps you "feel" what an iamb is. It should sound to you like: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM. This line from Hamlet may be the most famous set of iambs in the English language. You probably recognize iambs from Shakespeare, but if they are giving you some trouble, just remember the following line: (To hear what that sounds like, say the word "allow" out loud. Each foot (or pair of syllables) is made up of a pair of syllables: one unstressed and one stressed. In a hymn stanza, the first and third line in every stanza is made up of eight syllables, or four feet. Dickinson's favorite brand of stanza is known as the hymn stanza or the ballad stanza, and she used it in the majority of poems that she wrote. If you're familiar with ballads and/or hymns, you know that they are typically written in short quatrains, with alternating rhyming lines. Hymn-Like Iambic Meter, Served Up in Quatrains
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