Scansion

Shakespeare most commonly wrote in blank verse (unryhmed iambic pentameter).


iamb (^/) (unstressed/stressed)


^ / ^ / ^ / ^ / ^ /
"So foul and fair a day I have not seen" (1.3.38)

When Shakespeare breaks from blank verse by writing prose, heroic couplets, or another rhythm and meter, the audience notices the shift in music. The witches break from blank verse and speak in trochee tetrameter. What's the affect on the audience?

trochee (/^) (stressed, unstressed)

/ ^ / ^ / ^ / ^
"Double, double toil and trouble
Fire burn, and caldron bubble" (4.1.19-20)


spondee (/ / ) (stressed, stressed)

/ /
"All hail" (1.3.50).

The commonly used names for line lengths are:

monometer: one foot
dimeter: two feet
trimeter: three feet
tetrameter: four feet
pentameter: five feet
hexameter: six feet
heptameter: seven feet
octameter: eight feet