Iamb

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An iamb is a no stress-stress couplet (joinder of two syllables) in poetic meter. The iamb is famously used in iambic pentameter.[1]

An example of an iamb used in verse is this, from Shakespeare's Cymbeline. Capitalized syllables are stressed; uncapitalized syllables are unstressed.

ALL OH-ver JOYED... save THOSE in BONDS.

Only the last two syllables are iambic: the first couple syllables are not in iambic pentameter, deliberately to set the joyous implications apart for comic effect.

References

  1. http://shakespeare.about.com/od/faqshakespearesworks/f/iambic.htm/