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Scanning Poetry-2

Scanning is a system for describing the rhythms in poetry by dividing lines into stressed and unstressed syllables grouped into feet. The most common poetic feet in English are iambs, trochees, anapests, dactyls, and spondees. The type and number of feet determine the meter, such as iambic pentameter which has five iambic feet per line. To scan a line, one counts syllables, notes stresses, and divides the line into feet to identify the meter and interpret how deviations may impact meaning.

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384 views2 pages

Scanning Poetry-2

Scanning is a system for describing the rhythms in poetry by dividing lines into stressed and unstressed syllables grouped into feet. The most common poetic feet in English are iambs, trochees, anapests, dactyls, and spondees. The type and number of feet determine the meter, such as iambic pentameter which has five iambic feet per line. To scan a line, one counts syllables, notes stresses, and divides the line into feet to identify the meter and interpret how deviations may impact meaning.

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Scanning Poetry: Finding the Rhythm

(The multimedia version of this handout can be found at


http://cola.gcumedia.com/eng221/r/scanningPoetry.html)
Scanning is a system for describing the rhythms you hear in poetry. When we scan poetry in English, we
divide lines into units of two or three syllables, called feet. In each of those feet, we look for stressed and
unstressed syllables. The number and pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a foot allows us to name
its kind. The name of the kind of foot, and the number of feet per line give us the standard names for
different meters. Here are the major types of poetic feet in English ("/" stands for a stressed syllable, "--" for
an unstressed one):
Iamb (Iambic)

-- /

-- /
a gain

Trochee (Trochaic)

/ --

/ -ne ver

Anapest (Anapestic)

-- -- /

-- -/
in the dark

Dactyl (Dactylic)

/ -- --

/ --yes ter day

Spondee (Spondaic

/ /

/
/
Pell mell

Pyrrhic (Pyrrhic)

-- --

-- -in a

The number of feet (of any type) determines the second half of the metrical label (in the following examples,
the foot is iambic):
Monometer (one foot) [Like stone]
Dimeter (two feet) [Tomor|row dies]
Trimeter (three feet) [No taw|dry ruin| of kings]
Tetrameter (four feet) [Come live| with me| and be| my love.]
Pentameter (five feet) [The cur|few tolls| the knell| of par|ting day.]
Hexameter (six feet) [She knelt.| So pure| a thing,| so free| from mor|tal taint.]
Heptameter (seven feet) [All fun|ny fel|lows, co|mic men,| and clowns| of pri|vate life.]
Octameter (eight feet) [Let it| fall on| Locksley| Hall, with| rain or| hail, or| fire or| snow.]
(Adapted from Holman and Harmon's Handbook to Literature, 5th ed., MacMillan, 1986.)
An Example
Underlying Assumptions:
Look for two-syllable feet when starting (English poetry uses two syllable feet more often than three).

Helfers

Scanning Poetry

page 1

Look for iambs when starting (the most common foot in English poetry is iambic).
Sample line: Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
1.

Count the number of syllables in the line (10).

2.

Look for the natural accents in multisyllable words.


/
/
/
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

3.
Assume the last syllable is stressed, partly because iambic feet would stress it, and partly because
the content of the last word/syllable is often important in a line.
/
/
/
/
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
4.

Look for insignificant (in terms of content) syllables or words and mark them as unstressed.
/ --- / -- / -- /
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

5.

Read the line over and mark the syllables that would be stressed in the normal reading of the phrase.
/ / -- / -- / -- / -- /
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

6.

Now think about the pattern, assuming a two-syllable foot, and expecting iambics. Start from the
end of the line and divide things up into feet.
/ / | -- / | -- / | -- / | -- /
Not mar|ble, nor| the gild|ed mon|uments

(Notice that this attempt to divide things up works well; if you were getting a seriously irregular rhythm [for
example, feet with two unstressed syllables only, then feet with two stressed syllables only, interspersed with
iambs or trochees], then you'd want to redivide the line using three-syllable feet. Here, however, the number
of syllables in the line makes consistent three-syllable feet impossible.)
Now we've arrived at the place where we can describe our sample: it's a basically iambic pentameter line
that opens with a spondee. What difference does that description make? Here are a few things that one
might say: The two stresses of the spondee indicate some kind of certainty or urgency, and present a strong,
dramatic opening. Iambics, as the "natural" meter of English, imply order and stability (the next line
happens to refer to "this powerful rhyme").
But, any such interpretation depends not only on the scanning of a given line, but also on what the complete
poem says, as well as on the rhythm and sound of the other lines. One would also want to read around about
the poetic conventions current at the time of the poem's composition: were the rules governing meter so
strict that any deviation would signal an important point? Or did the poet write during a time in which strict
meter wasn't seen to be that big an issue? Did contemporary audiences and authors see particular verse and
metrical forms as meaning something particular, or having a particularly appropriate subject matter?

Helfers

Scanning Poetry

page 2

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