How to scan a poem

Presented by Sarif Syamsu Rizal English Department Faculty of Humanities Dian Nuswantoro University

Rhythm Meter (line & foot) Scansion

BEAT CADENCE METER

Definition
rhythm: the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. meter: the number of feet in a line. scansion: describing the rhythms of poetry by dividing the lines into feet, marking the locations of stressed and unstressed syllables, and counting the syllables.

when we describe the rhythm of a poem, we scan the poem and mark the stresses (/) and absences of stress (/ ~/ -/ v) and count the number of feet.

Meter
Patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables The basic unit of meter is a foot. Most common feet in English poetry: Iamb / Trochee / Anapest / Pyrrhic Dactyl Spondee / //

 Some feet in verse and poetry have different stress patterns. For example, one type of foot consists of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one. Another type consists of a stressed one followed by an unstressed one. In all, there are five types of feet:
Iamb (Iambic) Trochee (Trochaic) Spondee (Spondaic) Pyrrhic Anapest (Anapestic) Dactyl (Dactylic) Unstressed + Stressed Stressed + Unstressed Stressed + Stressed Unstressed + Unstressed Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed Two Syllables Two Syllables Two Syllables Two Syllables Three Syllables Three Syllables

Metrical Lines
The length of linesand thus the metercan also vary. Following are the types of meter and the line length: Monometer Dimeter Trimeter Tetrameter Pentameter Hexameter Heptameter Octameter One Foot Two Feet Three Feet Four Feet Five Feet Six Feet Seven Feet Eight Feet

Rhythm Scansion
Foot: Iamb (Iambic) Trochee (Trochaic) Spondee (Spondaic) Pyrrhic Anapest (Anapestic) Dactyl (Dactylic) Unstressed + Stressed Stressed + Unstressed Stressed + Stressed Unstressed + Unstressed Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed Two Syllables Two Syllables Two Syllables Two Syllables Three Syllables Three Syllables

Metrical line: Monometer Dimeter Trimeter TetrameterFour Feet Pentameter Hexameter Heptameter Octameter

One Foot Two Feet Three Feet Five Feet Six Feet Seven Feet Eight Feet

Elaine Ashley

I want to go to Italy and eat a pizza pie

Iamb iambic

Shakespeare

Double, double toil and trouble Fire burn and cauldron bubble

trochee

Edgar Alan Poe

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Amabel Lee

Anapest

Anapestic

Beatles

Picture yourself in a boat a river with

Tangerine tree-ess and marmalade skii-ii-es

Dactyl

Dactylic

Poems have feet!!!

Monometer Dimeter Trimeter Tetrameter Pentameter Hexameter Heptameter Octameter One Foot Two Feet Three Feet Four Feet Five Feet Six Feet Seven Feet Eight Feet

Beatles
/ / / / Picture your|self in a |boat on a |river with / / / / Tangerine |tree-ess and |marmalade |skii-ii-es

Dactyl

Dactylic tetrameter

Shakespeare / / / / Double, double toil and trouble / / / / Fire burn and cauldron bubble

Trochee tetrameter

Sonnet 18
/ / / / / / / / / / / / /
Shall I compare thee to a Summers day?

/ /

Thou art more lovely and more temperate Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May

And Summers lease hath all too short a date

iambic pentameter

Now you know how to scan a poem !!!

/ Iambic

/ / / / I asked my mother for fifty cents / / / x / / To see the elephant jump the fence / / / / He jumped so high, he touched the sky / / / / / And he did not come back til the Fourth of July

Shakespeares SONNET 138

When my| love swears| that she |is made |of truth I do believe her though I know she lies, That she might think me some untutord youth Unlearned in the worlds false subtleties. Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young, Although she knows my days are past the best, Simply I credit her false speaking tongue: On both sides thus is simple truth suppressd. But wherefore says she not she is unjust? And wherefore say not I that I am old? O, loves best habit is in seeming trust, And age in love loves not to have years told: Therefore, I lie with her and she with me And in our faults by lies we flatterd be.

Trochaic /
/ / / / / / Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers x / / / / / / If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers / / / / Wheres the peck of pickled peppers / / / (iambic) That Peter Piper picked?

The Tyger by William Blake

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Could frame thy fearful symmetry? When the stars threw down their spears, And watered heaven with their tears, Did he smile his work to see? Did he who made the Lamb, make thee? Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies Burnt the fire in thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, and what art? Could twist the sinews of thy heart? And when thy heart began to beat, What dread hand, and what dread feet?
What the hammer? What the chain? In what furnace was thy brain? What the anvil? What dread grasp Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

Anapestic /
/ / / There was an old man in a tree / / / Who was horribly bored by a bee / / When they said, "Does it buzz? / / He replied, "Yes, it does! / / / It's a regular brute of a bee!"

Edward Lear

/ Dactylic (poetry)
/ / / / / / This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Dactylic hexameter: Longfellow, Evangeline

/ / / / Picture your self in a boat on a river with / / / / tangerine tree-ees and marmalade skii-ii-es.
Dactylic tetrameter time: The Beatles, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

Spondaic / /
Rarely an entire line of poetry
/ / / / See Saw, Margery Daw
/ / / / I scream. You scream. / / / We all scream for ice cream
From the bells, bells, bells, bells, Bells, bells, bells From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells. -- E.A. Poe