79: Iambic Pentameter

Iambic Pentameter

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Title text: Of course, you don't wanna limit yourself to the strict forms of the meter. That could get pretty difficult.

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Explanation

In this part of the My Hobby series, the hobby is responding to casual questions using iambic pentameter, which is most commonly associated with William Shakespeare and Shakespearean plays. Iambic pentameter is a form of poetic verse defined by the number of syllables per line. In this form, a line contains exactly five (penta means five in Greek) "iambs" per line. An iamb is a unit of two syllables with the stress falling on the second. The actual breakup of the words is unimportant; the definition is based solely on the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. One line of strict iambic pentameter will have ten syllables, with the stress falling on the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, and last.

In this comic, Cueball (i.e. Randall - the one with the hobby) is replying to his friend's questions. (The friend also looks like Cueball, but are here differentiated by who has the hobby.) Cueball's responses are each one line of iambic pentameter, just visually broken into two lines for space reasons. They read (adding the emphasis):

"Well, I can meet the plane at ten of six" and

"I'll meet him at the stairs before the gate"

with a sort of bouncing rhythm.

This is the "strict form" of iambic pentameter. In practice, poets often strayed from the strict count of iambs as the image text suggests. Wikipedia offers two Shakespearian examples being "Now is the winter of our discontent," in which the first iamb is reversed ("Now" is stressed rather than "is"), and "To be or not to be, that is the question," which adds an extra unstressed syllable at the end. As the comic suggests in the title text, without such exceptions, it can be very difficult to stick to strict iambic pentameter for every sentence.

Transcript

[Two identical Cueballs are having a conversation. The latter is identified as Cueball, since he represents Randall who has the Hobby.]

Friend: What time can you pick Michael up?

Cueball: Well, I can meet the plane at ten of six.

Friend: Do you know where to find him?

Cueball: I'll meet him at the stairs before the gate.

[Below the two Cueballs are the following text:]

My hobby: answering casual questions in iambic pentameter.

Trivia

Iambs and other types of poetry "feet" are the subject of 1383: Magic Words.

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Discussion

It's really not so hard to write such prose,
To stick to Shakespeare's scheme for fellow bards,
Of course the preparation always slows,
So spontaneity aint on the cards.
The better art of live concoction sits,
Beyond the skill of I your editor,
And this is why the comic title bits,
Are true and accurate without a flaw.
Or so I humour Randall by these lines,
Restricted by the form I've set upon,
Fearing that soon I'll commit rhyming crimes,
That you the readers see arrive, 'ere long.
And thus a sonnet author finds to be,
Whether for fun or for a Dark Lady.
178.98.31.27 14:08, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

I am stunned. Flabbergasted, of a lack of words. You, good sir, are a hero. A true poet, a master of words. I applaud you, and thank you for your time here. Netherin5 (talk) 15:04, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Please create an account, explainxkcd needs wants you here. Knit cap (talk) 09:54, 9 December 2020 (UTC)

Wait, normal people don't communicate exclusively in iambic pentameter? Shakespeare lied to me! 199.27.128.62 04:04, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

There is a community portal discussion of what to call Cueball and what to do in case with more than one Cueball. I have added this comic to the new Category:Multiple Cueballs. Since Randall is the one with the hobby and also the one that Cueball represents I have kept Cueball in this explanation and transcript. But made a note of it. --Kynde (talk) 13:58, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

If you unstress both "of" and "course," the title text also kind of works with iambic meter. Aronurr (talk) 23:25, 21 January 2020 (UTC)

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb. 19:16, 3 June 2023

I rarely speak non-iambic, that's for sure.
I surely won't attempt to find a cure.
It hardly is a problem, do you mind?
I just can't help that I'm the rhyming kind!

If people all around the world agreed,
and rhymed instead of waging wars unjust,
the world would be a better place indeed,
thus, if you ask me, poetry 's a must!

That said, if one of you explainers know,
enlighten me on whether there's a rule,
which parts of quads of penta-iambic lines,
should rhyme together, like I just did show?

Flexximilian (talk) 23:44, 01 September 2023 (UTC)

Refer to places such as Rhyme scheme's link?

In there you will perhaps come find a clue.

To start: I, for your first of verses, think,

Perhaps a Balliol or Clerihew.

Though as your stanzas go from here to there,

The scheme does change in ways I need not say.

The second verse is of a type not rare,

In fact I do prefer myself that way.

It's at the last where head and foot alone,

Both rhyme; the lines betwixt are free from that.

In isolation I don't see it shown,

Of which the listed group or style it's at!

172.71.242.206 09:09, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

What the hell is "ten of six"? Yorkshire Pudding (talk) 12:33, 18 April 2025 (UTC)

It's an americanism for "ten to six", or 5:50(am/pm).

May be "of" in other places too, I know some European countries use the term that basically translates to "half five" to mean 4:30 (half an hour before five o'clock), rather than 5:30 (five o'clock plus half an hour) - but I'm not entirely sure if any that do this have the equivalent (or implicitly does, by their grammar rules), and I forget which ones to check. (I'm half remembering that maybe some of the scandiwegian languages do it, not so sure about the romance ones... what little I remember of German makes me think that's not one, and once you start going into the more eastern lands of Europe you get really weird stuff, from my anglophonic persoective, so who knows!)

It might also be archaic British English (at least as far back as Shakespeare, could be Chaucerian), though maybe that's just because it sounds like "eight of the clock" (...ten four, me hearties!), and timekeeping back then wasn't really regularly adhered to except to the (pre-clock, but prior equivalent of) "stroke of the hour" deliniations for most people who even had that kind of scheduling necessity. I could probably look that up, but it's certainly of a different time and/or place from thyself and myself.

Of course, it befits the whole style of the meter, even if not Randall's usual phrasing in his everyday 'Merkin. 172.70.160.182 15:56, 18 April 2025 (UTC)

The title text is also in iambic pentameter guess who (if you desire conversing | what i have done) 19:05, 18 April 2025 (UTC)

As I read it, it obeys its own conclusion by not quite doing so. Using "/" between feet and "//" between (poly)meters:

"Of course, / you don't / wanna / limit / yourself // to the / strict forms / of the / meter. / That could // get pre/tty diff/icult."

Five Iambs (neatly, though assuming "wanNA" is no different from "want TO"), five more Iambs (or four and one from the next, slightly awkward either way), then three (or four, if the last was four, but very awkward either way. I can't work out how to get it to work better.

Closest I can do is to uncontract things and split some syllable-and-a-half words awkwardly:

"Of course / you do / not want / to lim/it your//self to / the stri/ct for/ms of / the met//er. That / could get / pretty / diffi / cult (?) ." - 5, 5 and 4.5, but with truly awful transitions in places.

Or maybe it works better in your (or Randall's) accent, but I just think it's supposed to be self-demonstrating as to how some things aren't pentameterable... 172.70.58.5 19:57, 18 April 2025 (UTC) -- PS, your signature sort of 'runs on' from your sentence. Might help if you remember to add a "." to the end of your sentences, might also help if you have it say something like -- [[User:Firestar233|guess who]] at the start of your signature just to make the link more obvious not part of the 'message'.
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