How to scan a poem

Presented bySarif Syamsu Rizal

English DepartmentFaculty of Humanities

Dian Nuswantoro University

RhythmMeter (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) Unstressed + Stressed Two SyllablesTrochee (Trochaic) Stressed + Unstressed Two SyllablesSpondee (Spondaic) Stressed + Stressed Two SyllablesPyrrhic Unstressed + Unstressed Two SyllablesAnapest (Anapestic) Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed Three SyllablesDactyl (Dactylic) Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed Three

Syllables

The length of lines–and thus the meter–can also vary. Following are the types of meter and the line length:  

Monometer One FootDimeter Two FeetTrimeter Three FeetTetrameter Four FeetPentameter Five FeetHexameter Six FeetHeptameter Seven FeetOctameter Eight Feet

Metrical Lines

Rhythm ScansionFoot:Iamb (Iambic) Unstressed + Stressed Two SyllablesTrochee (Trochaic) Stressed + Unstressed Two SyllablesSpondee (Spondaic) Stressed + Stressed Two SyllablesPyrrhic Unstressed + Unstressed Two SyllablesAnapest (Anapestic) Unstressed + Unstressed + Stressed Three SyllablesDactyl (Dactylic) Stressed + Unstressed + Unstressed Three Syllables

Metrical line:

Monometer One Foot

Dimeter Two Feet

Trimeter Three Feet

Tetrameter Four Feet

Pentameter Five Feet

Hexameter Six Feet

Heptameter Seven Feet

Octameter Eight Feet

Elaine

Ashley

I want to go to Italy

and eat a pizza pie

Iamb iambic

trochee

Double, double toil and trouble

Fire burn and cauldron bubble

Shakespeare

Anapest Anapestic

For the moon never beams

without bringing me dreams

Of the beautiful Amabel Lee

Edgar Alan Poe

Dactyl Dactylic

Picture yourself in a boat a river with

Tangerine tree-ess and marmalade skii-ii-es

Beatles

Poems have…

feet!!!

Monometer One FootDimeter Two FeetTrimeter Three FeetTetrameter Four FeetPentameter Five FeetHexameter Six FeetHeptameter Seven FeetOctameter Eight Feet

Dactyl Dactylic tetrameter

/ / / /

Picture your|self in a |boat on a |river with

/ / / / Tangerine |tree-ess and |marmalade |skii-ii-es

Beatles

Trochee tetrameter

/ / / /

Double, double toil and trouble

/ / / /

Fire burn and cauldron bubble

Shakespeare

iambic pentameter

/ / / / /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

Sonnet 18

Now you know

how to scan

a poem !!!

/ Iambic

/ / / /I asked my mo·ther for fif·ty cents / / / x / /To see the el·e·phant jump the fence / / / / He jumped so high, he touched the sky / / / / /And he did not come back ‘til the Fourth of Ju·ly

Shakespeare’s SONNET 138

When my| love swears| that she |is made |of truthI do believe her though I know she lies,That she might think me some untutor’d youthUnlearned in the world’s 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 suppress’d.

But wherefore says she not she is unjust?And wherefore say not I that I am old?O, love’s best habit is in seeming trust,And age in love loves not to have years told:

Therefore, I lie with her and she with meAnd in our faults by lies we flatter’d be.

Trochaic /

/ / / / / / Pe·ter Pi·per picked a peck of pick·led pep·pers

x / / / / / / If Pe·ter Pi·per picked a peck of pick·led pep·pers

/ / / / Where’s the peck of pick·led pep·pers

/ / / (iambic)

That Pe·ter Pi·per 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? 

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? 

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?

Anapestic /

/ / / There was an old man in a tree / / / Who was hor·rib·ly bored by a bee / / When they said, "Does it buzz?“ / / He re·plied, "Yes, it does! / / / It's a reg·u·lar brute of a bee!"

Edward Lear

/ Dactylic (po·e·try)

/ / / / / / This is the forest prim·eval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,

/ / / /

Picture your self in a boat on a river with

/ / / /

tangerine tree-ees and marmalade skii-ii-es.

Dactylic hexameter: Longfellow, Evangeline

Dactylic tetrameter ¾ 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