Verse: Poetic language that includes meter and sometimes rhyme; organized in lines with a consistent number of syllables. Poetic style of verse used for high status characters, great affairs of war and state, and tragic moments.

Prose: Ordinary written language with no meter or rhyme; organized in sentences. Prose used for low status characters (servants, clowns, drunks, villains), proclamations, written challenges, accusations, letters, comedic moments, and to express madness.

Meter: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. It is responsible for creating the rhythm of a line. Meter is described in terms of the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables AND the total number of metrical feet in a line of verse.

Foot: a group of syllables that forms one complete unit of a metrical pattern.

Iamb: unstressed syllable, stressed syllable ˘ /

Pentameter: Lines of five iambic feet; 10 syllables

Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter

Free Verse: No regular meter

Aside: a character’s remark, either to the audience or another character, that other characters on stage are not supposed to hear

Monologue: an extended speech by a single character that is uninterrupted by others

Soliloquy: a speech a character gives when s/he is alone on stage