Sonnet poem: I know the writing scheme to the sonnet but what does stressed and unstressed words mean?

Question

I'm going for the english sonnet poem, and I know its 14lines, 4,4,4,2 and the rhyme scheme goes abab,cdcd,efef,gg. But, there's something about 10 unstressed and 10 stressed words, or something like that. Can you please explain?

Answer 1

it's not stressed and unstressed words, it's syllables. it means there are 10 syllables in each line. the first syllable is either stressed or unstressed but usually unstressed. the next syllable is the opposite and they keep alternating until there are 5 of each.
stressed means that the syllable is louder in the word and unstressed is a softer sylllable.
for example, in the phrase "she was fearless" "she" and "fear" are stressed (you can hear it when you say it aloud) and "was" and "less" are unstressed.
basically you stress and emphasize syllables in a pattern with unstressed syllables which are not emphazied.
it is natural when you talk so try saying a few lines of you poem and try to pick out which are which.
hope this helps! good luck with your poem!

Answer 2

Every word has a syllable that is stressed, it is the part of the word that you accent, your voice goes up on, or you spend a little bit more time on.
For example: Ireland when you say it you put more emphasis on the first syllable, "I" than on "reland"
Trouble the emphasis is on Trou
In a dictionary it will show you which syllable is accented or stressed and which is not. The stressed ones have a ' over it. Sometimes they have a large ' and then a smaller one. This means one is the most stressed and the second is stressed slightly less.

I hope this makes sense. It is a very difficult task to write in iambic pentameter ... good luck!