Shakespeare's use of more than 10 syllables per line:

A. confuses the meaning of the line, making the reader uncomfortable.
B. draws attention to the line, perhaps making it seem more important.
C. entertains audience members and keeps them more engaged in the play.
D. elevates the language, making it seem more refined and elegant.

Question

Shakespeare's use of more than 10 syllables per line:

 		A.	confuses the meaning of the line, making the reader uncomfortable.
 		B.	draws attention to the line, perhaps making it seem more important.
 		C.	entertains audience members and keeps them more engaged in the play.
 		D.	elevates the language, making it seem more refined and elegant.

anonymous · Answer

Shakespeare's verse is not characterized by the number of syllables
(as, for example, a haiku is) but rather by its patterns of
stressed and unstressed syllables. The pattern of a weak syllable
followed by a strong one, as in words like "Berlin", "depends",
"revoke", "Jerome", is called an iamb. Shakespeare's predecessors
found that units of five of these iambs approximated normal English
speech while at the same time being musical and therefore easier to
remember.