<P> Here is the first quatrain of a sonnet by John Donne, which demonstrates how he uses a number of metrical variations strategically . This scansion adds numbers to indicate how Donne uses a variety of stress levels to realize his beats and offbeats (1 = lightest stress, 4 = heaviest stress): </P> <P> Donne uses an inversion (DUM da instead of da DUM) in the first foot of the first line to stress the key verb, "batter", and then sets up a clear iambic pattern with the rest of the line (da DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM). In the second and fourth lines he uses strongly - stressed offbeats (which can be interpreted as spondees) in the third foot to slow down the rhythm as he lists monosyllabic verbs . The parallel rhythm and grammar of these lines highlights the comparison Donne sets up between what God does to him "as yet" ("knock, breathe, shine and seek to mend"), and what he asks God to do ("break, blow, burn and make me new"). Donne also uses enjambment between lines three and four to speed up the flow as he builds to his desire to be made new . To further the speed - up effect of the enjambment, Donne puts an extra syllable in the final foot of the line (this can be read as an anapest (dada DUM) or as an elision). </P> <P> As the examples show, iambic pentameter need not consist entirely of iambs, nor need it have ten syllables . Most poets who have a great facility for iambic pentameter frequently vary the rhythm of their poetry as Donne and Shakespeare do in the examples, both to create a more interesting overall rhythm and to highlight important thematic elements . In fact, the skillful variation of iambic pentameter, rather than the consistent use of it, may well be what distinguishes the rhythmic artistry of Donne, Shakespeare, Milton, and the 20th century sonneteer Edna St. Vincent Millay . </P> <P> Several scholars have argued that iambic pentameter has been so important in the history of English poetry by contrasting it with the one other important meter (tetrameter), variously called "four - beat," "strong - stress," "native meter," or "four - by - four meter ." Four - beat, with four beats to a line, is the meter of nursery rhymes, children's jump - rope and counting - out rhymes, folk songs and ballads, marching cadence calls, and a good deal of art poetry . It has been described by Attridge as based on doubling: two beats to each half line, two half lines to a line, two pairs of lines to a stanza . The metrical stresses alternate between light and heavy . It is a heavily regular beat that produces something like a repeated tune in the performing voice, and is, indeed, close to song . Because of its odd number of metrical beats, iambic pentameter, as Attridge says, does not impose itself on the natural rhythm of spoken language . Thus iambic pentameter frees intonation from the repetitiveness of four - beat and allows instead the varied intonations of significant speech to be heard . Pace can be varied in iambic pentameter, as it cannot in four - beat, as Alexander Pope demonstrated in his "An Essay on Criticism": </P>

Which of the following is an example of iambic pentameter