off my turf, langdon
Dec. 11th, 2009 09:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellrose"The path of light is laid, the sacred test. 'It's a damned line of iambic pentameter, he said suddenly, counting the syllables again. 'Five couplets of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables.'"
- Angels and Demons, page 272 (paperback edition).
Iambic pentameter.
It does not mean what you think it means, Langdon.
Iambic pentameter has nothing to do with couplets. Couplets are a pair of rhyming lines that go together. The final four-line poem that he ends up with is two couplets of iambic pentameter. I'm a little rusty on the English lit side of my education, but I am absolutely certain about this. The "penta" refers to the five "feet" (pairs of stressed and unstressed syllables) in one line of iambic pentameter. And the "iamb-" bit refers to the stress/unstress pattern. I would say that the word he's reaching for is 'sonnet,' but that wouldn't be right, either. So no, just plain wrong.
Seriously, I don't care if people don't know what iambic pentameter is. I really don't. But if you're going to use it as a plot point in your book? Please look it up. Or just ask someone who knows. Because otherwise, it just grates on the nerves of everyone who really knows.
Also? I am deeply amused that he associates this with Langdon having gone to Phillips Exeter Academy. I went there for a summer (on scholarship - too damned expensive for me to have gone full-time or for any longer, alas). Good school. If Langdon had gone there, he'd know what iambic pentameter really is.
- Angels and Demons, page 272 (paperback edition).
Iambic pentameter.
It does not mean what you think it means, Langdon.
Iambic pentameter has nothing to do with couplets. Couplets are a pair of rhyming lines that go together. The final four-line poem that he ends up with is two couplets of iambic pentameter. I'm a little rusty on the English lit side of my education, but I am absolutely certain about this. The "penta" refers to the five "feet" (pairs of stressed and unstressed syllables) in one line of iambic pentameter. And the "iamb-" bit refers to the stress/unstress pattern. I would say that the word he's reaching for is 'sonnet,' but that wouldn't be right, either. So no, just plain wrong.
Seriously, I don't care if people don't know what iambic pentameter is. I really don't. But if you're going to use it as a plot point in your book? Please look it up. Or just ask someone who knows. Because otherwise, it just grates on the nerves of everyone who really knows.
Also? I am deeply amused that he associates this with Langdon having gone to Phillips Exeter Academy. I went there for a summer (on scholarship - too damned expensive for me to have gone full-time or for any longer, alas). Good school. If Langdon had gone there, he'd know what iambic pentameter really is.
