This is a wide-ranging, poetic analysis of the great English poetic line, iambic pentameter, as used by Chaucer, Sidney, Milton, and particularly by Shakespeare. George T. Wright offers a detailed survey of Shakespeare's brilliantly varied metrical keyboard and shows how it augments the expressiveness of his characters' stage language.

George T. Wright is Regents' Professor of English at the University of Minnesota and author of The Poet in the Poem and W. H. Auden.

"Wright has given us that rarity in contemporary Shakespeare studies: ways of reading and hearing that owe everything to informed, intelligent care and nothing to fashion. . . . An excellent book."—Carol M. Sicherman, Renaissance Quarterly

"Wright has written a substantial history as well as analysis. . . . This is a masterful study."—J. L. Simmons, Studies in English Literature

"Wright's book is rare in its field in being extremely well-written and fascinating. . . . It is the best book about metre I have ever read, and one of the most helpful books about Shakespeare for some years."—Peter Levi, Notes & Queries