What is Iambic Pentameter? A line consisting of 10 syllables: Most of Shakespeare's most famous lines follow this regular rhythm
A BBC Bitesize video explaining the term
Poetry and Prose Shakespeare’s plays are written mainly in poetry (verse) but he does use some prose too (ordinary writing not organised with rhymes or fixed line lengths). The kind of verse form that Shakespeare uses is called ‘blank verse’. This kind of verse is the form of verse that is closest in rhythm to natural speech. This makes it the ideal form to use for dialogue. Blank verse is verse that does not rhyme and which is composed of lines called ‘iambic pentameters’. An iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Five iambs in a row make a line of iambic pentameter (‘pent’ means five in Greek, as in ‘pentagon’ or ‘pentathlon’). This means that each line has 10 syllables, five stressed and five unstressed, as in this line from Romeo and Juliet:“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?” However, where necessary for his effects, Shakespeare may shorten lines or make them longer in order to express his meaning, or use enjambment (running on) where one line flows on into the next. - See more at: http://revisionworld.co.uk/gcse-revision/english/reading-shakespeare/poetry-and-prose#sthash.Ogj1lhSy.dpuf
Iago at times will descend into common prose, a signal from Shakespeare that he has more in common with the lower classes and may be less than honest!
Othello's language gets more and more ragged as the play goes on - out goes the flowery poetry of the early lines - see his powerful speech to the senate earlier on - and in the run up to Desdemona's death, lines are heavily punctuated to show the fragmentation of the character's mental order.
It starts to resemble more and more Iago's own language.
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