Why, all his behaviors did make their retire
To the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire:
His heart, like an agate, with your print impress’d,
Proud with his form, in his eye pride express’d:
His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see,
Did stumble with haste in his eyesight to be;
All senses to that sense did make their repair,
To feel only looking on fairest of fair:
Methought all his senses were lock’d in his eye,
As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy;
Who, tendering their own worth from where they were glass’d,
Did point you to buy them, along as you pass’d:
His face’s own margent did quote such amazes
That all eyes saw his eyes enchanted with gazes.
I’ll give you Aquitaine and all that is his,
An you give him for my sake but one living kiss.
-Boyet
Love’s Labour’s Lost Act II, scene i, line 239
There is a very good reason that I'm giving you all sixteen
lines of Boyet’s little speech here, and also why I'm not going to get into the context of it. Can you guess what this reason is? Well, it’s not
iambic pentameter, that’s for sure. In fact, that is the reaon: It’s not iambic
pentameter. It’s a tri-syllabic meter, isn’t it? I think it is. Read it aloud.
In fact, try reading it in iambic pentameter. Da da, Da da, Da da, Da da, Da da. It doesn’t really work. No, it doesn’t. Now,
try reading it like Seuss. Here's a Seuss sample:
I wish we could do what they do in Katroo,
They sure know how to say Happy Birthday to you
And here's a few lines from above:
His face’s own margent did quote such amazes
That all eyes saw his eyes enchanted with gazes.
Absolutely! It’s Anapestic Tetrameter, by golly! What the heck do you think of that? It's William Shakespeare using Anapestic Tetrameter. An intersection of Shakespeare and Seuss. Who would have ever thought of that? Actually, well, me. And you saw it here first! No, not on Mulberry Street; here at Totally Random Daily Shakespeare.
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