Why does shakespeare use heroic couplets

A couplet refers to two lines of equal length that rhyme and that, together, form a complete thought. Good night! Definition of a Heroic Couplet A heroic couplet is always rhymed and is usually in iambic pentameter although there is some variation of the meter.

And, more important, they are related and together make up a complete thought or sentence. Their thematic or syntactical connection is more significant than their physical closeness. This quote from " Romeo and Juliet " is a great example of a couplet:. These lines from Phillis Wheatley 's "On Virtue," however, are not a couplet:. So while all couplets are two consecutive lines, not all pairs of consecutive lines are couplets.

To be a couplet, the lines have to be a unit, generally self-contained, and complete. The lines can either be part of a larger stanza or a closed stanza by themselves. Several characteristics distinguish a heroic couplet from a regular couplet. A heroic couplet is always rhymed and is usually in iambic pentameter although there is some variation of the meter. The heroic couplet is also usually closed, meaning that both lines are end-stopped by some type of punctuation , and the lines are a self-contained grammatical unit.

It is not, however, a heroic couplet. This brings us to the final qualification: context. For a couplet to be heroic, it needs a heroic setting. This is obviously a bit subjective, but in most cases, determining if a poem is "heroic" is fairly easy. Some good examples of heroic couplets from poems you may be familiar with include:. So let's go through our checklist:. How many lines is a couplet? Which is the best definition of a couplet? What are words that rhyme with me? What are words that rhyme with man?

What are words that rhyme with work? What rhymes hard work? Previous Article How do you reference a figure in-text Harvard? Next Article How does word choice affect a story? Couplets provide a punch, as the end rhymes make the audience take notice. According to the California State Polytechnic University, Shakespeare also used couplets in songs, plays within plays and supernatural characters to set them apart from the blank verse that makes up the rest of the play.

Shakespeare and other English poets favored the heroic couplet, or two lines of rhymed iambic pentameter, typically with a pause, or caesura, in the middle of each line. While this long poem is comprised entirely of couplets, most poets use couplets as parts of a larger form.