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Heroic couplet | Example of Heroic Couplet

Heroic couplet:


A pair of iambic pentameter verse lines which rhyme together. A heroic couplet is a traditional form for English poetry. It is commonly used for epic and narrative poetry. It refers to poems constructed from a sequence of rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines

 

Example of Heroic Couplet:


But when/ to mis / chief mor / tals bend / their will
How soon / they find / fit ins / truments/ of ill!

(Pope: The Rape of the Lock)


Each of these lines consists of five iambic feet. In each pair the first syllable is unstressed and the second syllable is stressed. Such five feet arranged in a verse line are called iambic pentameter. When two such iambic pentameter lines end with similar sounds as in these lines (will=ill) they are called heroic couplet.