Meter & Rhythm
Feminine Ending
From Renaissance prosody. Shakespeare uses feminine endings extensively to create hesitation, doubt, or emotional openness — especially in soliloquies.
Definition
A line that ends on an unstressed syllable, producing a softer, less decisive close than a masculine ending.
Example
'To be, or not to be, that IS the QUES-tion' — the eleventh syllable -tion is unstressed.