How to Write a Poem in Iambic Pentameter
Quick answer: How to write a poem in iambic pentameter, step by step: count five da-DUM feet per line, test by reading aloud, and learn when to break the pattern.
To write in iambic pentameter, build each line from five iambs: five pairs of syllables where the second is stressed, giving a da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM rhythm of ten syllables. Start by writing a plain sentence, then rearrange and swap words until the natural stresses fall on the even syllables, testing every line by reading it aloud with exaggerated emphasis.
Here is the encouraging secret: English already leans iambic. Phrases like 'a cup of tea', 'the train arrives at nine', 'I left my keys inside the car' scan almost perfectly without effort. You are not imposing an alien pattern on the language, you are tidying a rhythm that ordinary speech falls into constantly. That is why Shakespeare could write thousands of lines of it and still sound like a person talking.
The poem
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date;
William Shakespeare, 'Sonnet 18' (1609)
Hear the beat before you write it
Before drafting, tune your ear. Say 'da-DUM' five times in a row, tapping the table on each DUM. Then read a known pentameter line against that tap: 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?' The stresses land on 'I', '-pare', 'to' (lightly), 'sum-' and 'day'. You will notice the pattern is a tendency, not a metronome. Real lines contain lighter and heavier stresses, and that flexibility is what stops metrical verse from sounding like a nursery rhyme.
A worked example, from prose to pentameter
Take the flat sentence: 'My grandmother kept letters in a shoebox under her bed.' Too long, and the stresses stumble. Compress and rearrange: 'My grandmother kept letters in a box.' Scan it: my GRAND-moth-ER kept LET-ters IN a BOX. Close, but 'grandmother' forces an awkward stress. Swap the noun: 'My nana kept her letters in a box.' Now it scans cleanly: my NA-na KEPT her LET-ters IN a BOX. That is the whole method: draft the thought, scan it, then substitute words until rhythm and meaning agree.
Legal variations that keep lines alive
Strict da-DUM for forty lines becomes wallpaper. Poets have always varied the pattern, and three substitutions are so common they are practically part of the metre. The trochaic inversion flips the first foot ('NEV-er' instead of 'a-BOVE') to open a line with force. The feminine ending adds an eleventh, unstressed syllable, as in 'To be or not to be, that is the question.' The pyrrhic-spondee pairing puts two light syllables before two heavy ones, letting a line surge. Use variations deliberately, roughly one line in three, and always return to the base rhythm so the reader keeps the pulse.
Common beginner mistakes
The two failure modes are opposites. Some beginners count ten syllables and ignore stress, producing lines with the right length and no heartbeat. Others enforce the beat so rigidly that word choice dies: 'I do believe that I shall go to town' scans perfectly and says nothing. Aim between them. Write the line you mean, then nudge it toward the metre, and let a genuinely better phrase win over a metrically perfect dud. Contest judges reading for language and structure reward pentameter that breathes, not pentameter that marches.
What poets can take from this
- Tap the table on every stressed syllable while reading your line aloud.
- Draft the sentence you mean first, then bend it toward the metre.
- Allow yourself one metrical variation roughly every three lines.
- Single-syllable words are your friends: they take stress wherever you place them.
- If a line refuses to scan, replace its longest word rather than rearranging everything.
- Read a page of Shakespeare's sonnets aloud before each writing session to prime your ear.
Try it yourself
Write ten lines of iambic pentameter describing an ordinary morning routine, kettle to front door. Allow yourself exactly three metrical variations and mark them in the margin.
Questions
Does iambic pentameter have to rhyme?
No. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is called blank verse, the metre of Shakespeare's plays and Milton's Paradise Lost. Rhyme is a separate choice layered on top, as in sonnets.
Can a pentameter line have eleven syllables?
Yes. An extra unstressed syllable at the end is called a feminine ending and is completely traditional. What matters is the five-stress pulse, not a strict syllable count.
How do I check my scansion is right?
Read the line aloud as if speaking naturally and mark where your voice lands hardest. If natural speech fights your intended stresses, the scansion is wrong, whatever the syllable count says.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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