Iambic pentameter help

Question

Hey I am writing a 14 line sonnet and I am having trouble with it greatly. As I try to put it in Iambic form it's grueling and troublesome. If anybody out there can help me I would appreciate it so much.

The sonnet I have now is this and I just can't wrap my head around Iambic pentameter. I don't know if this is close but please help me.

human hearts can be sometimes vast and deep

for as Much as love is never ending

Until you traverse unforgiving worlds

Full of a hatefulness and misery

Fiery laced hearts in the chests of many

For they are blinded by the cliche of love

severely Broken and torn in plenty

Tears of a flood or dry as a desert

Red cheeks stained with a fearful depression

Some clothes covered in blood and torn to shreds

The way out is death or intervention

Fall in the coma of darkness in bed

to be lifted up by life once again

Always know fate will never lose but win

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Syllable count and stressed syllables.

human hearts can be sometimes vast and deep 10
for as Much as love is never ending 10
Until you traverse unforgiving worlds 10
Full of a hatefulness and misery 10
Fiery laced hearts in the chests of many 10
For they are blinded by the cliche of love 11 (It's pronounced klee-SHAY.)
severely Broken and torn in plenty 10
Tears of a flood or dry as a desert 10
Red cheeks stained with a fearful depression 10
Some clothes covered in blood and torn to shreds 10
The way out is death or intervention 10
Fall in the coma of darkness in bed 10
to be lifted up by life once again 10
Always know fate will never lose but win 10

You've got the syllable count in control, but the stress patterns are off. The stresses have to be on the even-numbered syllables (2,4,6,8,10). That means you can't start a line with a stressed syllable, as you do 8 times out of 14. It also means you can't end a line with an unstressed syllable, as you do 6 times out of 14. Words ending in -tion and -ing can't be placed at the end of a line.

Once or twice in your sonnet you can put the stress on syllable 1 and 4 instead of on 2 and 4, where the first word of the line is important to the meaning, but don't overdo it.
___________

You have only one line that comes close to iambic pentameter, and that's only if you change "cliche" to a one-syllable word, "mask" or "veil" or whatever you want.

For they are blinded by the veil of love

You can easily fix the first line with this.

The human heart is sometimes vast and deep

You may be able to find fixes to other lines with minimal changes, but other lines will have to be reworked more.

By the way, you need a capital letter at the beginning of each line and not anywhere else. You also need punctuation to show the sentence structure.

CJ

Iambic pentameter help

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