I have a theory: we enjoy a Shakespeare production more when there is a balance between poetry and storytelling. I feel that Shakespeare...

Do you know how to tell the difference between verse and prose? This is something that trips a lot of people up, but my quick, minute-long...

A dactyl is not a dinosaur - but "dinosaur" is a dactyl! A dactyl is a metric foot in poetry that is one stressed syllable...

If you've ever wondered what a sonnet is, I'm gonna break it down for you right now! Simply put, a sonnet is a type of poem, f...

Last week on Breaking Down the Bard, I explained couplets , or two lines of verse in a row which have an ending rhyme. This week, we'll...

There are two main styles of poetic rhyming that we find in Shakespeare's verse: couplets and quatrains . Being able to easily and q...

If you've been on Instagram, Pinterest, or the Internet in general, you've probably seen those lovely images with a quote on them ...

Now that you know what verse is , and what perfect iambic pentameter is (and if you don't, feel free to read my previous Breaking Do...

Now that you've got a handle on the difference between verse and prose , what perfect iambic pentameter is , and what scansion is (and ...

Our patterns of speech have various rhythms, made up of combinations of stressed or unstressed syllables or words. In reality, the amount ...

One of the very first things you need to learn as a classical or Shakespearean actor is how to identify when you are speaking in Verse o...