Writelike Shakespeare: Macbeth's 'Tomorrow' soliloquy

Iambic pentameter might be an exotic and intimidating term, but it describes something quite straightforward.

The iamb beat is the natural beat of our heart—i AM. Da DUM.

It's also a natural rhythm in English where we use weak pointers and pronouns before strong nouns and verbs:

• She GOES
• He SAID
• My SWORD

Iambic pentameter—five iambs in a row—is roughly the length of a short sentence in English:

• I FOUND my SWORD in THAT gross TOILet THERE.

There's a lot more information about iambic pentameter on the web. A couple of good resources:

Here is a video of contemporary American playwright David Mamet, who loves to write about men being jerks to each other, talking about how iambic pentameter is the rhythm of ordinary English speech, and how Shakespeare raised this rhythm to a high art.

Here are some videos from the Royal Shakespeare Company dealing with verse effects in Macbeth. The first video on the page shows a director coaching actors to be able to feel the iambic beat.

This TED-Ed animation explores poetic meter a bit more broadly and explains why Shakespeare used it.

So if an iamb is da DUM, then in the snippet below we will highlight the DUM:

• Da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM.

The DUM part of the iamb is called the stressed beat, while the da part is called the unstressed beat.

However, there's a wrinkle!

Shakespeare changes it up

Shakespeare uses iambic pentameter as a base rhythm in his verse—but he deviates it from it all the time. 

Usually the deviation is for dramatic effect—like a drummer adding a fill, or a dancer freestyling over a groove (although sometimes it's probably just because he couldn't figure out how to say what he wanted within the given meter).

So we've highlighted any stressed beats that fall off the iambic pattern like this:

• Da DUM da DUM da DUM. DUM DUM DUM da.

Now we can take a look at the original snippet with iambic pentameter in mind.

It's easier to read this aloud, and use the tapping exercise in the RSC video linked above.

See if you can find the rhythm, where it settles into an iambic pentameter groove, and where it deviates for dramatic effect (or because things just didn't quite fit).

Can you feel the rhythm? Can you feel how he sets up a groove, and then mixes it up at key moments to create impact with rhythm changes?

You might disagree with some of the off-beat stresses marked

That's fine! There's an element of interpretation to this, and once you're aware of these rhythms you'll notice how different actors interpret them differently.

For instance, some actors like to say 'out, out'—stressing each word equally—while others like to say 'out, out'—maintaining the iambic gallop.

No. The effect is a lot more subtle than that, plus there is lots of room to play around with the phrasing, timing, and stress in a way that hides the underlying rhythm.

Which raises the question, why have this rhythm at all?

It's a good question, and maybe the answer is because having the rhythm forces you to make specific word and syntax choices that you wouldn't otherwise make, and these compound to create a heightened effect that is sustained even if the performer messes around with the rhythm on top of that.