English Literature / Unit 1 ENL 0023 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Couplet and Heroic Couplet
Captions available
The idea
A couplet is a pair of successive lines that rhyme and share a meter. A closed couplet ends both lines on a pause; an open couplet runs on. The heroic couplet is rhymed iambic pentameter, used by Chaucer and, the standard account says, perfected by Dryden and Pope.
In practice
Two rhyming lines, five beats each.
Where people slip
Heroic names the meter, not the subject.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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