WAEC - Literature In English (2024 - No. 9)
Read the lines below and answer the question:
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains
My sense, as though of hemlock I have drunk
The metrical pattern is
anapestic
dactylic
iambic
trochaic
Explanation
The given lines are from John Keats' poem Ode to a Nightingale, and they follow an iambic pentameter pattern.
Breaking it down metrically:
"My heart aches, and a drow-sy numb-ness pains"
- The pattern alternates between unstressed (˘) and stressed (´) syllables, which is characteristic of iambic meter:
- My HEART (˘ ´)
- aches, AND (˘ ´)
- a DROW (˘ ´)
- sy NUMB (˘ ´)
- ness PAINS (˘ ´)
Since the dominant pattern is unstressed-stressed (˘ ´), it follows the iambic metrical pattern.
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