Poetry Basics : Scansion

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Poetry Basics Scansion
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General Poetry Terms

• Meter (British English spelling metre) describes
  the linguistic sound patterns of a verse.
• Scansion is the analysis of poetry's metrical and
  rhythmic patterns.
• Prosody is sometimes used to describe poetic
  meter, and indicates the analysis of similar
  aspects of language in linguistics.
• Meter is part of many formal verse forms.

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Lines

• The traditional definition of poetry is any
  written composition that is deliberately
  separated into lines. Therefore, the line is one
  of the poets most powerful tools in developing
  meaning.
• Linear patterns that occur in the line are found
  primarily in how the line ends. Linear pattern
  looks at whether the line is end-stopped or
  enjambed (referred to as enjambment).

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Linear Patterns

• An end-stopped line ends with hard punctuation,
  typically a period, comma, dash or semi-colon.
• from A Poison Tree
• I was angry with my friend
• I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
• I was angry with my foe
• I told it not, my wrath did grow.
• --William Blake
• Enjambed lines break the phrase and often contain
  internal punctuation.
• from Annabell Lee
• It was many and many a year ago, in a kingdom
  by the sea, that a maiden there lived whom you
  may know by the name of ANNABEL LEE---- Edgar
  Allan Poe

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Rhyme
From To the City of Bombay The Cities are
full of pride,Challenging each to each --This
from her mountain-side,That from her burthened
beach. They count their ships full tale --Their
corn and oil and wine,Derrick and loom and
bale,And rampart's gun-flecked lineCity by
City they hail"Hast aught to match with
mine? And the men that breed from themThey
traffic up and down,But cling to their cities'
hemAs a child to their mother's gown. --
Rudyard Kipling
A B A B C D C D C D E F E F
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Meter

• The metrical "feet" in the classical languages
  were based on the length of time taken to
  pronounce each syllable, which were categorized
  according to their weight as either "long"
  syllables or "short" syllables (also known as
  "heavy" and "light" syllables, respectively, to
  distinguish from long and short vowels).
• Meter in poetry is typically described by
  identifying the dominant type of foot and the
  number of feet per line (e.g. iambic pentameter).

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Feet

• Foot One stressed syllable plus the unstressed
  syllable(s) that go with it
• Repetitions of feet patterns creates rhythm
• Feet are notated with
• / Stressed Syllable
• z Unstressed Syllable

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Feet
FOOT NOUN ADJECTIVE
z / Iamb Iambic
z z / Anapest Anapestic
/ z Trochee Trochaic
/ z z Dactyl Dactylic
/ / Spondee Spondaic
Ta DAH La Ti DAH DOH - Tee DOH Tee
Doh DOH - DOH
i AM an - uh - PEST TRO - kay DAK til -
ick SPON - DAY
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Scanning a line

• Scan for the number of feet in the line
• Lets go to the store and buy some more.

z / z z / z
/ z /
/ / /

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Feet per Line
FEET PER LINE PREFIX NAME
1 Mono Monometer
2 Di Dimeter
3 Tri Trimeter
4 Tetra Tetrameter
5 Penta Pentameter
6 Hex Hexameter
7 Hep Heptameter
8 Oct Octameter
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Stanza

• Stanza two or more lines of poetry that together
  form one of the divisions of a poem.
• The stanzas of a poem are usually of the same
  length and follow the same pattern of meter and
  rhyme, creating a stanzaic pattern.
• While there are often lines separating stanzas,
  this is not always the case. Sometimes rhyme
  patterns are helpful in determining stanza breaks
  in a poem without stanza breaks.

NAME of LINES per stanza
Couplet 2 lines
Tercet 3 lines
Quatrain 4 lines
Cinquain 5 lines
Sestet 6 lines
Septet 7 lines
Octave 8 lines
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What meter is this?
Peter, Peter pumpkin-eater Had a wife and
couldn't keep her.
Orange is the stressed syllable (/)
/
/
/
/
z
z
z
z

• Peter, Peter pumpkin-eater
• Had a wife and couldn't keep her.

trochee
/
/
/
/
z
z
z
z
Peter, / Peter / pumpkin- / eater Had a / wife
and / couldn't / keep her.
tetrameter
trochaic tetrameter
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What meter is this?
The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and
gold
z
z
z
z
z
z
z
z
/
/
/
/
The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and
gold
anapest
z
z
z
z
z
z
z
z
/
/
/
/
The Assyr / ian came down / like a wolf / on the
fold And his co / horts were gleam / ing in pur
/ ple and gold
tetrameter
anapestic tetrameter
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What meter is this?
Picture your self in a boat on a river with
tangerine tree-ees and marmalade skii-ii-es.
/
/
/
/
z
z
z
z
z
z
z
z
Picture your self in a boat on a river with
tangerine tree-ees and marmalade skii-ii-es.
dactyl
/
/
/
/
z
z
z
z
z
z
z
z
Picture your / self in a / boat on a / river with
tangerine / tree-ees and / marmalade /
skii-ii-es.
tetrameter
dactylic tetrameter
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What meter is this?
It is an ancyent Marinere, And he stoppeth one
of three "By thy long grey beard and thy
glittering eye "Now wherefore stoppest me?
Line 1 iambic tetrameter
It is / an anc / yent Mar / in ere, And he
stopp / eth one / of three "By thy long / grey
beard / and thy glitt / er ing eye "Now where /
fore stopp / est me?
Line 2 foot 1 anapestic feet 2 3
iambic of feet trimeter
Line 3 feet 1, 3, 4 anapestic foot 2
iambic of feet tetrameter iambic tetrameter
Line 4 iambic trimeter
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Other Basic Terminology

• Turn or Shift a shifting of focus, either in
  topic or tone, within a poem
• Refrain repetition of a line or lines within a
  poem. In musical lyrics, we call the refrain that
  chorus.

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The end . . . for now
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TP-CASTT

• T-title The meaning of the title without
  reference to the poem.
• P-paraphrase Put the poem, line by line, in
  your own words. DO NOT READ INTO THE POEM.
  Only read on surface level.
• C-connotation looking for deeper meaning.
• Diction and symbolism
• Imagery
• Metaphors and similes
• Rhyme scheme
• End rhymes and internal rhymes
• End stop
• Enjambment
• Alliteration
• Assonance
• Consonance
• Mood
• Allusions
• Punctuation
• Personification
• A-attitude Looking for the authors tone. How
  is the writer speaking?
• S-shifts Looking for shifts in tone, action, and
  rhythm. Dont just write the number. Discuss
  how the shift(s) affects the poem.

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Forms

• Generally, the form of a poem involves the way it
  is visually arranged on the page. The number of
  stanzas, rhyme scheme, traditional pattern (if
  any), spacing, refrain, stanzaic breaks, and
  other such qualities can give important clues to
  the overall meaning of the poem.
• Stanza a group of lines set apart from the rest
  of the poem by white space above and below

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SONNET 1
FROM fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light'st flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content
And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.
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Iambic Pentameter
z / z / z / z / z /
From fair est creat ures we des ire in crease
z / z / z / z / z /
That there by beau tys rose might nev er die
z / z / z / z / z /
But as the rip er should in time de crease
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Meters
Iambic pentameter (Christopher Marlowe, The
Tragical History of Doctor Faustus Edna St.
Vincent Millay, Sonnets) Dactylic hexameter
(Homer, Illiad Virgil, Aenead, Ovid, "The
Metamorphoses") Iambic tetrameter (Alexander
Pope Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress")
Iambic heptameter (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Trochaic octameter (Edgar Allan Poe, "The
Raven") Anapestic tetrameter (Lewis Carroll,
"The Hunting of the Snark" Lord Byron, Don Juan)
Trochaic tetrameter (many hymns)
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• Ballad a narrative poem that is characterized by
  repetition and often by a repeated refrain
  (recurrent phrase or series of phrases). Ballads
  were originally meant to be sung. In its usual
  form, the ballad stanza consists of a quatrain
  with four beats in the first and third lines
  (iambic tetrameter) and three beats in the second
  and fourth which also rhyme (iambic trimester).
  Traditional ballad subjects include murder, love,
  revenge, shipwrecks, and the supernatural.