Iambic Pentameter Quotes

“What Hamlet suffers from is a lack of zombies. Let us say Rosencrantz and Guildenstern show up—Ho-HO! Now you’ve got something that stirs the, um, something that stirs things that are stirrable. BOOM! A pack of ravenous flesh-eaters breaks open their heads and sucks out their eyeballs. No need for iambic pentameter because they are grunting, groaning annihilators of humanity with no time for meter. You’re not asleep in the back of English class anymore, are you? This is what I’m talking about. Zombies. Learn it, live it, love it.”
― Libba Bray

“I once witnessed a rather unfortunate production of Shakespeare's Hamlet - the lead actor didn't know his existential angst from his iambic pentameter and, alas, poor Yorick was a bemused bystander.”
― Stewart Stafford

“The Seer's Map by Stewart Stafford

Howling dog, thou cursèd hound,
Plaguest thy master with baleful sound,
The cur's yelps taint the air around;
A dirge for all that hear thy wound.

The rooftop magpie foretells:
Herald of guests to visit soon,
A noisy speech announceth,
Companions of the afternoon.

Lucky horseshoe and iron key,
Bringeth good fortune to the finder,
But spilling salt provokes fate,
And draws the evil eye's reminder.

A shoe upon the table laid,
Tempts the dead to live anon,
For this ungracious gesture waketh,
Flesh and blood from skeleton.

Who crosses the path of hare or priest,
A perilous milestone on thy road,
Their very presence signifies
That gathering trouble doth forebode.

A toad on thy merry travels,
Brings sweet smiles and kindest charms,
Keep one about thy person warm,
To shelter safe from danger's harms.

Red sky at night delights the eye,
Of shepherd that beholds thy light,
Thy colour doth betoken dawn
Of weather fair and clear and bright.

Red sky at morn troubles the heart,
Of shepherd that surveys thy shade,
Thy hue doth presage day
Of stormy blast and tempest made.

December's thunder balm,
Speaks of harvest's tranquil mind,
January's thunder, fierce!
Warns of war and gales unkind.

An itchy palm hints at gold
To come into thy hand ere long,
But if thou scratch it, thou dost lose
The fair wind that blows so strong.

A Sunday Christmas forewarns:
Three signs of what the year shall hold;
A winter mild, a Lenten wind,
And summer dry, to then unfold.

Good luck charm on New Year's Day
Maketh fortune bloom all year,
But to lose it or give it away,
Thou dost invite ill-omened fear.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Ladybird Heart by Stewart Stafford

O darling o' my heart,
If 'tis true that is what thou art,
Then recognise and see me.

Didst I not win thy heart so bold,
And giveth thee rings of gold?
Anon, honour our precious union.

But to interfering teams,
Thy loyalty now it seems,
Thee grants these canker blossoms o'er me.

Recall how they hath tried,
To jilt me from mine own bride,
And keepest thou lonesome and melancholy.

So, returneth, my dove,
To this, thy bed of love,
And sleep soundly beneath thy lovebird's wing.

© Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford