POETIC
STRUCTURE
How to Use Meter, Rhyme, Stanza and
Line in Poetic Interpretation
Scansion
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Definition:
Noun: “the analysis of verse into its metrical or
rhythmic components.”
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc.
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Formal Uses: Scan “closed form” poems to find
the metrical feet and line length.
Informal Uses: Assess the shifts in rhythm and
line to find a poet’s emphasis or shift in
argument.
Scansion—Difficulty with “The Flea”
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In the Poetry Handbook, John Lennard, writing
about scansion and meter in “The Flea,” claims
that, despite the overall use of alternating iambic
tetrameter and pentameter, John Donne’s
“argument . . . becomes sufficiently vehement to
put his metre under considerable pressure” (15).
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“Donne, for not keeping of accent, deserved
hanging”—Ben Jonson
How to Scan and Interpret Meter
in Closed Form: The Simpler, the Better
Cru-el /and sud/den, has/ thou since [a]
Purpled /thy nail / in blood /of in /nocence? [a]
Wherein /could this /flea guil/ty be, [b]
Except /in that /drop which /it sucked /from thee?[b]
Yet thou /triumph’st, /and say’st /that thou [c]
Find’st not /thyself, /nor me, /the wea/ker now; [c]
‘Tis true; /then learn /how false /fears be; [d/b]
Just so /much hon/or, when /thou yield’st /to me, [d/b]
Will waste,/as this/flea’s death/took life /from thee.[d/b]
“The Flea” (581, ln 19-27) by John Donne
Lennard continues:
Even here, the iambic beat is quite strong enough for “[cruel]
and [sudden]” to leap into auditory focus: “[cruel]” (helped
by its spelling) drags out over both beats as a near- spondee . .
. while the brutally trochaic “[sudden]” is broken over the foot
division . . . reflecting the sudden pressure needed to kill a
flea, and the jet of blood that results if it has just sucked”
(17).
1) Cru-el /and sud/den, has/ thou since
Spondaic (stress-stress) “Cru-el”/ and trochaic “sudden” split
unnaturally into iambic: “and sud/ den has”
2) Cruel and/ sud-den, /has thou since
Trochaic (stress-un-stress) “Cruel and” followed by trochaic
“sud-den” and then an ill-metered (stress-un-stress) “has
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Scansion in Traditional Vs. Modified Closed Form
Traditional Villanelle: Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night” (642)
Do not go gentle into that good night,
[A1]
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
[b]
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
[A2]
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
[a]
[b]
[A1]
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
[a]
[b]
[A2]
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
[a]
[b]
[A1]
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight [a]
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
[b]
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
[A2]
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
[a]
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. [b]
Do not go gentle into that good night.
[A1]
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
[A2]
Now try your hand at scansion above.
What shifts in meter do you see? What
might this shift emphasize?
Now, Compare Villanelles:
“One Art” by Elizabeth Bishop (635-36)
The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
[A1]
[b]
[A2]
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
[a]
[b]
[A1]
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
[a]
[b]
[A2?]
I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.
[a]
[b]
[A1]
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.
[a]
[b]
[A2?]
--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
[a]
[b]
[A1?]
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
[A2?]
What do you notice about this use of the villanelle structure?
Is the meter the same as Thomas’s? Different? How?
What effect does this have on the reader?
Using Scansion in Open Form Poetry:
“Flower Feet” (655-56)
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Ruth Fainlight’s poem on Chinese foot binding steps across
cultural boundaries, and while she doesn’t use formal
structure, she uses precisely chosen line breaks, enjambment,
alliteration, assonance and consonance, to shine light on an
unfamiliar, even forgotten practice.
Chinese Foot Binding
In the following lines from Fainlight’s poem, look for interesting
line breaks (enjambment), shifts in rhythm or stress (meter),
unique sound patterns (alliteration, consonance), or comparisons
in a single line or stanza.
Those hearts, tongues, crescents, and disks, leather
shapes an inch across, are the soles of shoes
no wider or longer than the span of my ankle (5-7)
it could not hurt more than broken toes, twisted
back and bandaged tight. An old woman,
leaning on a cane outside her door
in a Chinese village, smiled to tell how
she fought and cried, how when she stood on points
of pain that gnawed like fire, nurse and mother
praised her tottering walk on flower feet. (9-16)
Concrete Poems: “The Red Wheelbarrow” by
William Carlos Williams (619)
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens
Finding Structural Meaning in Free Verse:
e.e. cummings’ “next to of course god america i” (710-11)
“next to of course god america I
love you land of the pilgrims’ and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn’s early my
country ‘tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beautiful
than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they dies instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?”
He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water. (1926)
“next to, of course, God, America I love you.
Land of the pilgrims’ and so forth.
Oh say can you see by the dawn’s early [light]
my country ‘tis of [thee]
centuries come and go and are no more.
What of it? We should worry.
In every language, even deaf and dumb, thy sons acclaim
your glorious name, by gorry, by jingo, by gee, by gosh, by gum
Why talk of beauty?
What could be more beautiful, than these heroic happy
dead who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter?
They did not stop to think. They died instead.
Then shall the voice of liberty be mute?”
He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water. (1926)
How does cummings’
manipulation of structure affect
his message?
Any other questions?
Gertrude Stein: Tender Buttons
“SALAD DRESSING AND AN ARTICHOKE”
Please pale hot, please cover rose, please acre in the red
stranger, please butter all the beef-steak with regular feel
Faces.