English Literature / Unit 10 ENL 0903 short lesson, about 20 seconds
John Dryden and the Heroic Couplet
Captions available
The idea
John Dryden so dominated Restoration letters that the period is called the Age of Dryden. He was England's first Poet Laureate and made the heroic couplet, rhyming iambic pentameter pairs, closed and self-contained, a standard English form for satire, plays and translation.
In practice
Rhymed pentameter pairs, closed and balanced.
Where people slip
A closed couplet completes its sense in two lines.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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