The Vow - Sonnet

To be iambic, one would have to read S1L4 as: "Your BEAU-ty I will EX-pound AT great LENGTH". But in natural speaking, we say "ex-POUND". )Check the dictionary, and you'll find (ik-spound')).  The same problem with "embrace" (em-brace'), "erase angers" (er-ase' an'-gers), "passions persist" (pash'-ens per-sist'), etc. A lot of getting the meter right is just saying it naturally but methodically, like you were reading it from memory before an audience. Iambic should sound almost soporific: dah-DAH dah-DAH dah-DAH dah-DAH etc.

Hope this helps

Alcuin