Mastering Poetry Scansion: Understanding Rhythm and Meter

1. Rhythm and Meter

2. Rhythm • The recurrence/repetition of stressed and unstressed sounds • Can be created through the repetition of words and phrases • Typically created through accented or unaccented syllables

3. Vocabulary Syllable Stress/Accent • A sound part of a word • Emphasizing with sound • Page 982

4. Vocabulary Meter • A rhythmic pattern of stresses/accents in a poem Prosody • All the metrical elements combined Scansion • Measuring/marking the stresses/accents in a line or poem • Verb is scan

5. Vocabulary Foot • A metrical unit by which poetry is scanned/measured • Typically has 1 stressed/accented and 1 or 2 unstressed/unaccented • A line is measured by how many feet it containes

6. Common Foot Patterns

7. Iambic Pentameter • Exposure to many, mastery of this one! • A line of 5 feet of unstressed, stressed Blank verse: • Unrhymed iambic pentameter • Shakespeare!

8. Vocabulary Rising meter • Move from unstressed to stressed Falling meter • Move from stressed to unstressed Masculine ending • A line that ends with a stressed syllable Feminine ending • A line that ends with an unstressed syllable

9. Vocabulary Caesura • A pause within a line • Indicated by double line when scanning End-stopped line • Pause at end of line • Reflect normal speech patterns • Typically marked with punctuation Enjambment • Running from one line to another • Also called run-on line

10. Practice On one of the 2 poems provided, label: • how many feet is in each line • Which feet are rising meter and which are falling meter • Which endings are masculine and which are feminine • Which lines use enjambment

11. Tips for Scanning a Poem • Count the syllables in each line • Based on the syllables, decipher foot pattern • Stress all syllables that are one major word • Look for two syllable words that have a root word; stress the root word • Notice pattern • Use pattern, dictionary, and pronunciation to figure out rest of accents