Unlike all the other three plays that constitute the Henriad—Henry IV, Part 1, Henry IV, Part 2, and Henry V, Richard II is written entirely in verse. There are no scenes or speeches in prose. The verse is predominantly unrhymed blank verse, and the meter is iambic pentameter.

An iamb is a poetic foot consisting of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable, and a pentameter comprises five feet. For example, Richard’s speech here is in iambic pentameter: “But ere the crown he looks for live in peace, / Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers’ sons / Shall ill become the flower of England’s face” (3.3.96-98). Shakespeare also makes innumerable variations on the basic iambic rhythm for variety and emphasis. In the next line of the above passage, he substitutes a trochee (a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable) for an iamb; he also employs a spondee (two stressed syllables) in the final foot: “Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace” (3.3.99). The substitutions reinforce the meaning—that there will be a change.

In addition to blank verse, Shakespeare also makes considerable use of rhyming couplets. Often a speech, especially in the ceremonial scenes, will conclude with a couplet (two rhyming lines). This is called a capping couplet, as in the conclusion of Richard’s speech: “He is our subject, Mowbray; so art thou: / Free speech and fearless I to thee allow” (1.1.123-24). The Bishop of Carlisle concludes his long speech warning of civil war with a capping couplet: “Prevent it, resist it, let it not be so / Lest child, child’s children, cry against you woe” (4.1.148-49). These couplets create a sense of solemnity and finality, emphasizing the gravity of the characters’ statements.