The language in which Shakespeare wrote is referred to as Early Modern English , a linguistic period that lasted from approximately 1500 to 1750. The language spoken during this period is often referred to as Elizabethan English or Shakespearian English.
What poetic language is used in the prologue of Romeo and Juliet?
The Sonnet Form
Shakespeare wrote the prologue of “Romeo and Juliet” in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, which means that the prologue is a poem with 14 lines written in iambic pentameter .
What kind of language is used in Romeo and Juliet?
Shakespeare uses a large variety of poetic forms throughout the play. He begins with a 14-line prologue by a Chorus in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. Like this sonnet much of Romeo and Juliet is written in iambic pentameter , with ten syllables of alternating stress in each line.
Is Shakespeare a verse?
The majority of Shakespeare's plays are written in verse. ... The verse form he uses is blank verse . It contains no rhyme, but each line has an internal rhythm with a regular rhythmic pattern. The pattern most favored by Shakespeare is iambic pentameter.
Why does Shakespeare use verse?
verse is not as difficult as you might think. Shakespeare moved between prose and verse in his writing to vary the rhythmic structures within his plays and give his characters more depth.
Is death-marked a metaphor?
metaphor – “star-crossed lovers” Romeo and Juliet are compared to those doomed by unlucky stars. metaphor – “death- marked love .
Is death-marked love a metaphor?
Death-marked love is an oxymoron , a seemingly contradictory phrase that is, however, true. The feelings love produce are oxymoronic. “Two hours traffic” in line 12 is a metaphor for a play. “Patient ears” is a metaphor (it could also be classified as synecdoche).
Who is Romeo's first love?
Although an unseen character, her role is important: Romeo's unrequited love for Rosaline leads him to try to catch a glimpse of her at a gathering hosted by the Capulet family, during which he first spots Juliet. Scholars generally compare Romeo's short-lived love of Rosaline with his later love of Juliet.
What is verse in Shakespeare?
Verse in Shakespeare refers to all the lines of a play that follow a specific pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables . This pattern creates a metrical rhythm when the lines are spoken aloud. Shakespeare most often wrote in blank verse – blank meaning that it doesn't rhyme – arranged in iambic pentameter.
How does Shakespeare use prose and verse?
Shakespeare's plays contain both prose and verse . ... On the page, the prose runs continuously from margin to margin, while the verse is set out in narrower blocks, neatly aligned on the left (where lines all begin with capital letters), but forming a slightly ragged right-hand edge.
Does Shakespeare use free verse?
Free verse poetry has been popular from the nineteenth century onward and is not bound by rules regarding rhyme or meter. Blank verse poetry came of age in the sixteenth century and has been famously employed by the likes of William Shakespeare, John Milton, William Wordsworth, and countless others.
Is Romeo and Juliet prose or verse?
Prose and Verse
Like all of Shakespeare's tragedies, Romeo and Juliet is written mostly in blank verse . Shakespeare preferred to use verse when he was tackling serious themes, like the themes in Romeo and Juliet of doomed love, feuding, suicide, and death.
How does Romeo change after seeing Juliet?
After meeting Juliet, Romeo's biggest transformation is that he changes from being depressed and sorrowful to joyful . Otherwise, Romeo's character remains the same. Romeo remains a rash, emotionally driven, impetuous youth.
What does death mark D mean?
9 ‘death-mark'd love' – primarily ‘marked out for death ‘, but also with a sense that, from the start, their love is stained and diminished by their future death.
Is ancient grudge a metaphor?
This line is from the Prologue, and “ancient grudge” is a reference to the old feud that's been rumbling on between Romeo's and Juliet's families—the Montagues and the Capulets—for what seems like an absolute eternity. No one quite knows how long it's been going on, or even why it started.
Is death marked love an oxymoron?
“Death-marked love” is an example of oxymoron . An oxymoron is a figure of speech in which seemingly contradictory terms appear side by side. ... “Death-marked love” is an oxymoron because love is usually a life-giving entity.
