Poetic Metre and Scansion Cheat Sheet

Symb

ols

Symbol Where Meaning Metre: the basic rhythmic structure of a verse or lines in verse. Four types: quantitative (Greek and Latin); syllabic (French and Japanese); Accentual (Old English); accentual-syllabic (English) which this sheet deals with.

Feet: a group of syllables treated as one poetic unit, regardless of word boundaries. Usually two or three syllables in a foot.

Caesura: (lit. cuts) a break in a line of verse, often coinciding with a break between clauses or sentences.

/ or ‘ or - Above text Stressed syllable (ictus) X or ˘ Above text Unstressed Syllable (nonictus)

/ Inline Denotes a line break | Inline Separates metrical feet

|| Inline Denotes a caesura

Types o

f feet

Name Stresses Example Iambic (iamb) x / New York OR “It was | the best | of times, || it was | the worst | of times” Trochaic (trochee) / x London OR “Double,| double,| toil and | trouble”

Anapestic (anapest) x x / Tennessee OR “I must finish my journey alone” Dactylic (dactyl) / x x Leningrad OR “Woman much | missed, how you | call to me,| call to me”

Spondaic (spondee) / / Draw back OR “When the blood creeps and the nerves prick” *

Pyrrhic (pyrrhic) x x “When the blood creeps and the nerves prick” (*alternating pyrrhics and spondees)

Nu

mb

er of feet

Name Feet Example Monometer One “Thus I | Pass by | And die” (iambic)

Dimeter Two “Can-non to | right of them, / Can-non to | left of them” (dactylic) Trimeter Three “In the | gold-en | light-ning” (trochaic)

Tetrameter Four “Had we | but world | enough, | and time” (iambic) Pentameter Five “Should I | compare| thee to | a sum | mer’s day” (iambic)

Hexameter Six “Day by | day thy | shaddow | shines in | Heaven be | holden” (trochaic) Heptameter Seven “I went | into | a pub | lic ‘ouse | to get | a pint | o’ beer” (Iambic)

Octameter Eight “Once up|on a | midnight | dreary,| while I | pondered,| weak and | weary” (trochaic)