 IN SEARCH OF INSPIRATION
Dear readers John has asked me to prepare an article on the terminology that is pertinent to the study of poetry. Of course , there is a great deal that could be said about that subject , but here we shall discuss the subject of scansion and the terminology that relates to it. What is scansion ? Scansion is the process of inspecting a poem for patterns pertaining to meter , rhythm and rhyme. Why would we want to scan a poem ? When we understand how to scan poetry , we are better equipped , to be able to appreciate the art and skill of the poet , than the reader who is ignorant of the technique of scansion. Scanning a poem will yield a fair deal of information to the reader , for example: the poem will fall into one of four basic categories of verse: accentual verse - verse measured by specific accents in a line ; syllabic verse - verse measured by the number of syllables in a line ; accentual - syllabic verse - what the average person would probably have little difficulty in recognizing as poetry ; it follows a strict set of rules , often involving rhyme , has a distinct rhythm , or beat called "meter"; lines are measured in metric feet ; free verse - not subject to any set rules of rhythm , measure , or regular rhyme scheme.
Symbols used in scansion of poetry : / - an ictus , used above a syllable which is stressed , or accented È - the breve , used above a syllable which is unstressed , or unaccented / - the slash used to separate metric feet within a line
What is a metric foot ? A metric foot comprises two or three syllables , and is found in accentual - syllabic poetry. The placement of the accent determines the name of the foot , i.e. the kind of foot. Metric feet create what is known as "meter" -a regular pattern within a line of poetry. The type of metric foot used in a poem is creates a specific rhythm or beat.
In English accentual - syllabic verse there are , basically , six kinds of metrical feet : The iamb , or iambic foot , comprises first an unstressed syllable , and then a stressed syllable , and is represented like this : È / the phyrric foot : È È the spondee ( spondaic foot ) : / / the trochee ( trochaic foot ) : / È the anapest ( anapestic foot ) : È È / the dactyl ( dactylic foot ) : / È È The most common metrical foot you will encounter in English verse , is most likely going to be the iamb. Much of what William Shakespeare wrote was iambic, and specifically iambic pentameter. What is meant by the word "pentameter" ? Well , actually , it refers to the length of the lines in the verse , i.e. that there are five metric feet to the line. Iambic pentameter has five iambic feet to the line. Line length in poetry rarely , if ever exceeds seven feet . Here is how we refer to line length : one metric foot in length : monometer two metric feet : dimeter three : trimeter four : tetrameter five : pentameter six: hexameter seven : heptameter Okay , to put things in perspective , let us scan a portion of verse . The following is an excerpt from one of William Shakespeare's best known sonnets - his seventy -third , in fact. È / È / È / È / È / That time / of year / thou mayst / in me / behold A When yellow leaves , or none , or few do hang B Upon those boughs which shake against the cold , A Bare ruin'd choirs , where late the sweet birds sang. B
Notice , in the first line , the placement of the breve and the ictus , indicating which syllables are stressed / emphasized , and which are unstressed / not emphasized - clearly iambic. Also notice where the slashes fall between each iambic foot. There are five feet in the first line , establishing its length , which is pentameter. The other lines throughout the complete sonnet do actually scan identically to the first one , and it is , therefore , clearly iambic pentameter.
Some other terminology pertinent to scansion : Rhyme scheme - a set rhyming pattern adhered to to distinguish one type of poem from another and to achieve a certain desired effect. To denote the rhyme scheme , we use letters , starting at the letter A , and so on and insert them at the end of each line of the poem we are scanning. See the example above , which follows the ABAB rhyme scheme. Line 1 rhymes with line 3 , so they are both labeled "A" , etc.... Stanza - The word we use to describe what we would normally think of as a paragraph , i.e. a break between the lines of a poem , suggesting a change or modification of the ideas in the stanza that went before , or perhaps the introduction of a completely new idea. Two - line stanzas are known as "couplets", four - line stanzas are "quatrains" , six - line stanzas are "sestets", and eight - line stanzas are "octaves". Elision - Sometimes , for the poet to meet the requirements of accentual - syllabic verse , he makes use of the technique called "elision" . For example , imagine that he wants to use the dual - syllable word "heaven" within a line , but is faced with the problem that the metre and rhythm of his poem require that "heaven" be pronounced as one syllable or replaced by some other suitable single - syllable word ; in this case , he could happily write and pronounce the word heaven as one syllable - heav'n. When two syllables are pronounced as one , as in this case , we call the word a dipthong. Masculine and feminine endings - If a line ends on an accented / emphasized syllable , it is termed "masculine". If it ends on an unaccented syllable , it is termed "feminine". There is much more that could be said about the terminology and techniques relating to scansion and interpretation of poetry , but , the scope of this article is not meant to extend beyond the basics. I do hope that this information is useful to some of you out there. As usual I have made good use of the local public library as a source of references for the info. included in this article. Here is my bibliography : How to Write a Poem , copyright 1996 , by Margaret Ryan , ISBN 0-531-11252-7
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