Chaucer is considered the father of English literature, according to New World Encyclopedia. Born around 1343, several hundred years before Shakespeare, Chaucer greatly influenced the work of Shakespeare and other great English poets and playwrights. "The Canterbury Tales," arguably his greatest work, is the first example of iambic pentameter in the English language.
William Shakespeare was an English playwright who lived during the latter half of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century. Shakespeare was well known for using iambic pentameter in his plays and sonnets. One of his most popular sonnets, "Sonnet 18," which asks, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?" is an example of iambic pentameter because the sonnet follows the unstressed-stressed pattern.
Donne, a contemporary of Shakespeare, used iambic pentameter in addition to a variety of other metrical schemes. Donne is known for his Petrarchan sonnets, which are 14 lines, his use iambic pentameter and his use of a form of eight lines of a problem (octet) and six lines of an answer (sestet).
John Milton was born in 1608 as Shakespeare was nearing the end of his life. Milton wrote many poems and sonnets in iambic pentameter. His most famous and influential work is "Paradise Lost," an epic poem about God, salvation, heaven and hell. "Paradise Lost" is written in blank verse, which means it is in iambic pentameter, but it is not rhymed.
Because iambic pentameter is such a popular poetic meter, it is difficult to span the breadth of its use in English poetry. Many other poets such as William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alfred Tennyson and John Keats have used iambic pentameter in its pure form or mixed with other meters.