You would name it an “iambic tetrameter with a trochee in the first foot.”ĪBOUT THE 3-STEP SCANSION METHOD: It forestalls the mind’s habit of imposing an expected pattern, forcing us to stay in our bodies and listen freshly for wands and cups each time we scan. If a line has a significant variation, it is best to add that in the name as well (if the sample line above went So lines are named things like anapestic tetrameter, dactylic hexameter, iambic pentameter, trochaic trimeter, and so on. 2 feet is dimeter, 3 is trimeter, 4 is tetrameter, 5 is pentameter, 6 is hexameter. The most common types of feet are the anapest (cup-cup-wand), iamb (cup-wand), trochee (wand-cup), and dactyl (wand-cup-cup. HOW TO NAME LINES Name the pattern you have revealed by combining the type of foot and the number of feet. The line has four feet with a u/ pattern, so it is an iambic tetrameter. For more complex lines, such as the ones I sometimes scan on this blog and discuss in the podcast, a scansion needs to show the variations in the basic meter. An edge is not used at the end of a line of poetry, because the linebreak serves the same purpose. If you are using a pen and paper, it helps to extend the edge right down between or through the words as needed. Looking for patterns, you will notice repetition: cup-wand-cup-wand-cup-wand etc. STEP 3 Finally, listen for repeating patterns and mark the edges Usually, a cup goes over each unwanded sylllable. If you’d like to learn more about this, you’ll find it discussed in my book A Poet’s Ear. Note 2: If you are wondering, “but what if I want to emphasize it differently? What if I want to stress the “I” because it is I, and not another person, who is calling?,” the answer is yes, you can do that (it’s called “performative stress”), but a reader seeing it on the page would not know you were doing it unless you changed the meter to make it happen. Because of the strength of the verb “call,” the “I” gets softer by comparison, and the “and” ends up being stronger than the two syllables next to it. (Note 1: On a deeper level, if you are wondering how a small word like “and” can sound strong enough for a wand, the answer is that stress is relative: we hear a stress’s power relative to what’s around it. (Note: “I” may feel like a stronger syllable than “and,” but if you SAY IT ALOUD (the first rule of scansion!) you will notice that “and” needs to be spoken more strongly than “I.” Imagine shouting it to someone across a room to feel the difference. The sentence “It’s evening, and I call your name” would be scanned this way: And I’m happy to announce that I have finally completed a long-dreamed-of goal, a complete scansion workbook: How to Scan a Poem ! DEFINITION: “SCANSION,” “TO SCAN” More on scansion, and metrical poems too, may be found on my Youtube channel. Having invented these words due to the sore need for resonant, concrete nouns for basic scansion tools, I offer them freely to all who would like to adopt them (thought I would appreciate the courtesy of giving me credit for them-here’s looking at you, Masterclass!). The six terms used here are my own inventions, developed through decades of scanning and teaching meter. And some of my posts (such as this one on Yeats) will go into detail about meter and scansion.įor the huge numbers of us who were never taught scansion-or for those who were but not by me, and so are not familiar with my scansion terms- I offer this key. So scansion matters to the themes of this Spellsletter-poetry, magic, meter, feminism, and witchcraft. Scansion can be a first step to navigating our way back into the body familiarity that guides much of the wisdom of oral-based, earth-centered societies. But -as I’ve learned over thousands of hours teaching meter-it’s a central tool for those of us who are serious about reclaiming the power of rhythmic language in our current world. Until the advent of free verse about a hundred years ago, poetic rhythm was so familiar in our bodies that scansion may not have been necessary. It can also reveal hidden dimensions to the most urgent and necessary words we speak in our daily lives. The oft-misunderstood activity of scansion is (along with dancing) one of the most attentive and reverent ways with which to open ourselves to the magical energy patterns that weave throughout poetry. As a poetry lover, witch, or an explorer of the magical territory in-between-am I right in guessing this describes you ? - you may be surprised to learn that i consider the scansion of poetry (recognizing and marking its metrical patterns) to be, not only a deep sensual pleasure, but also a sacred art.
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