Question

ke it new!: early modernism
read the excerpt from william shakespeares hamlet.
to be, or not to be, that is the question;
whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer
the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
and by opposing end them? to die: to sleep;
no more; and by a sleep to say we end
the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
that flesh is heir to, tis a consummation
devoutly to be wishd. to die, to sleep;
to sleep: perchance to dream: ay, theres the rub;
for in that sleep of death what dreams may come
when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
must give us pause: theres the respect
that makes calamity of so long life;
this excerpt is an example of
free verse.
heroic couplet.
blank verse.
common meter.

Explanation:

The excerpt from Hamlet is in blank verse. Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter, which is characteristic of Shakespeare's plays. Free verse has no metrical pattern, heroic couplets are rhymed iambic pentameter in pairs, and common meter has a specific alternating meter (e.g., 8 - 6 syllable lines). This excerpt follows iambic pentameter without rhyme, so it's blank verse.

Answer:

blank verse.