Scanning poetry
I. Syllabification – there are as many
syllables in a Latin word as there are
vowels or diphthongs:
A. the vowels are A, E, I, O, U and
Y…and you may just ignore H.
B. the diphthongs are AE, EU, EI, OE, AU,
and UI. (n.b….these combinations are not
necessarily always diphthongs…you must
know how to pronounce the words! e.g.
in the gen. s. of res, ‘rei’ has two
syllables, so this ei is NOT a diphthong,
and ui not a diphthong in the word timui).
C. split a word into syllables so that each
consonant physically sits with the vowel
that follows it: prae/mi/um a/pe/ri/o
ca/nis fra/ter
ra/ti/o/nis
The consonants will influence the
strength of the vowels that precede
them! (They’re married to the vowels that follow
them…they’re having an affair with the vowels that precede them.)
D.split between two consonants:
nun/ti/um can/ta/re
*BUT…a mute and a liquid should stand
together – the liquid letters are L and R
and will always be the second letter in
the pair that makes a single consonant
sound: a/gri/co/la de/cla/ma/ti/o
ap/pro/pin/qua/bat
( * watch for further notes on the mute/liquid letters).
II. Quantity of syllables:
A. A syllable is long if it is “long by
nature” (i.e. the dictionary shows a
macron on the vowel…I’ll mark
macrons by underlining the vowels
where they are actually “long by
nature”.)
B. A syllable is long if it is followed by
two consonants (this includes the
consonants that begin successive
words)…the consonants X and Z, and
J, when it is surrounded by vowels, are
considered double consonants.
C. Diphthongs are always long.
D. Everything else is short.
E. *The neat thing about mute/liquid
consonants is that the syllables they
follow may be either long or short…so
you want to recognize them: hence, the
initial a- in agricola could be marked
either long or short, whichever is needed
to keep the rhythm moving properly
through the line of poetry.
III. Dactylic hexameter is the meter used by
Ovid in the Metamorphoses (and by
Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey)…only
dactyls and spondees are used.
A. A dactyl is a finger…one long bone
and two short bones – a dactylic foot is
marked – u u over the vowels.
B. A spondee is the two drops of wine
poured out as an offering: a spondaic
foot is marked – –.
C. Hexameter means there are six feet to
each line of poetry.
D. The first four feet can be either dactyls
or spondees (count the consonants to
see what’s long and what’s short).
F. The FIFTH foot is nearly always a
DACTYL.
G.The SIXTH foot is always a spondee,
with a syllaba anceps for the final
syllable, marked u.
_ u u / _ u u / _ u u / _ u u /_ u u / _ u
or _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ u u / _ u
or any combination thereof up to the fifth foot.
_
_
/_
u u /_
u u/_ u u /_ u
u /_ u
Urbs an/tiqua fu/it (Tyri/i tenu/ere co/loni)
n.b. – the first syllable of every foot is
always long, so if there aren’t two
consonants following a vowel, and it’s the
first syllable of a foot, you will find a
macron on that vowel in the dictionary
(assuming you’re scanning correctly through
the line).
When you have problems with a line, start at
the end, with the final spondee, get the fifth
foot established as a dactyl, and you will
probably at least be able to pinpoint where
the problem lies.
qu (qui, quattuor) and gu (sanguis)…the u is
considered part of the consonant Q and G,
and is NOT marked as a separate syllable.
IV. Elision: when a word ends in a vowel
or a vowel + m and the next word
begins with a vowel or an h + a vowel,
you should draw a curved line under
them to show elision. The vowel sound
at the end of the first word is then
ignored, and the initial vowel sound of
the second word gets marked with the
beat: aurum hora could then be
pronounced aur-ora…hora aurum
would sound like hor-aurum.
Though you may just discard the final
sound of the first word, it may also glide
through with a tiny sound in recognition
of its existence…for those of you who
are musically inclined, the syllable at the
end of the first word may then be
considered something of a grace note.
arma inlata
terram hostium
currum astra
vestra hospes
(From time to time, there will be instances wherein
following the rules of elision will actually ruin the
line…there will usually be some serious punctuation
between the words that one might want to elide, BUT
both the rhythm and the meaning will demand that
you NOT elide…this is called hiatus…not a very
common event, but it does occur…)