Poetry Basics :
Scansion
General Poetry Terms
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Meter (British English spelling: metre)
describes the linguistic sound patterns of a
verse.
Scansion is the analysis of poetry's metrical
and rhythmic patterns.
Prosody is sometimes used to describe poetic
meter, and indicates the analysis of similar
aspects of language in linguistics.
Meter is part of many formal verse forms.
Lines

The traditional definition of poetry is any written composition that is
deliberately separated into lines. Therefore, the line is one of the poet’s
most powerful tools in developing meaning.
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Linear patterns that occur in the line are found primarily in how the line
ends. Linear pattern looks at whether the line is end-stopped or enjambed
(referred to as enjambment).
Linear Patterns
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An end-stopped line ends with hard punctuation, typically a period, comma, dash or
semi-colon.
from “A Poison Tree”
I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
--William Blake
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Enjambed lines break the phrase and often contain internal punctuation.
from “Annabell Lee”
It was many and
many a year ago, in
a kingdom by
the sea, that a maiden there
lived whom you may
know by the name of
ANNABEL LEE;--- Edgar Allan Poe
From “To the City of Bombay”
The Cities are full of pride,
Challenging each to each -This from her mountain-side,
That from her burthened beach.
A
B
A
B
They count their ships full tale -Their corn and oil and wine,
Derrick and loom and bale,
And rampart's gun-flecked line;
City by City they hail:
"Hast aught to match with mine?“
C
D
C
D
C
D
And the men that breed from them
They traffic up and down,
But cling to their cities' hem
As a child to their mother's gown.
E
F
E
F
-- Rudyard Kipling
Rhyme
Meter
The metrical "feet" in the classical languages were
based on the length of time taken to pronounce
each syllable, which were categorized according to
their weight as either "long" syllables or "short"
syllables (also known as "heavy" and "light"
syllables, respectively, to distinguish from long and
short vowels).
Meter in poetry is typically described by identifying
the dominant type of foot and the number of feet
per line (e.g. iambic pentameter).
Feet
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Foot: One stressed syllable plus the unstressed
syllable(s) that go with it
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Repetitions of feet patterns creates rhythm
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Feet are notated with:
/ = Stressed Syllable
z = Unstressed Syllable
Feet
FOOT
NOUN
ADJECTIVE
i – AM
Ta – DAH
Anapestic
an - uh - PEST
La – Ti – DAH
Trochee
Trochaic
TRO - kay
DOH - Tee
/ z z
Dactyl
Dactylic
DAK – til - ick
DOH – Tee – Doh
/ /
Spondee
Spondaic
SPON - DAY
DOH - DOH
z /
Iamb
Iambic
z z /
Anapest
/ z
Scanning a line
Scan for the number of feet in the line:
z
|
/
z
z
/
|
z
/
|
z
/
Let’s go /to the store/and buy /some more.
Feet per Line
FEET PER
LINE
PREFIX
NAME
1
Mono
Monometer
2
Di
Dimeter
3
Tri
Trimeter
4
Tetra
Tetrameter
5
Penta
Pentameter
6
Hex
Hexameter
7
Hep
Heptameter
8
Oct
Octameter
Stanza
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Stanza: two or more lines
of poetry that together
form one of the divisions
of a poem.
The stanzas of a poem are
usually of the same length
and follow the same
pattern of meter and
rhyme, creating a stanzaic
pattern.
While there are often
lines separating stanzas,
this is not always the case.
Sometimes rhyme
patterns are helpful in
determining stanza breaks
in a poem without stanza
breaks.
NAME
# of LINES per
stanza
Couplet
2 lines
Tercet
3 lines
Quatrain
4 lines
Cinquain
5 lines
Sestet
6 lines
Septet
7 lines
Octave
8 lines
What meter is this?
Peter, Peter pumpkin-eater
Orange is the stressed syllable (/)
Had a wife and couldn't keep her.
/ z
/z
/
z
/ z
Peter, Peter pumpkin-eater
/z /
z
/ z
/
trochee
z
Had a wife and couldn't keep her.
Peter, / Peter / pumpkin- / eater
Had a / wife and / couldn't / keep her.
tetrameter
trochaic tetrameter
What meter is this?
The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold
z
z / z
z
z z
/
/ z
z
/
The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold
z
z / z
z
/
z z / z
z
/
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold
anapest
The Assyr / ian came down / like a wolf / on the fold
And his co / horts were gleam / ing in pur / ple and gold
anapestic tetrameter
tetrameter
What meter is this?
Picture your self in a boat on a river with
tangerine tree-ees and marmalade skii-ii-es.
/ z
z
/ zz
/ z z /z z
Picture your self in a boat on a river with
/ zz /
z z
/
zz
dactyl
/ zz
tangerine tree-ees and marmalade skii-ii-es.
Picture your / self in a / boat on a / river with
tangerine / tree-ees and / marmalade / skii-ii-es.
tetrameter
dactylic tetrameter
What meter is this?
It is an ancyent Marinere,
And he stoppeth one of three:
"By thy long grey beard and thy glittering eye
"Now wherefore stoppest me?
It is / an anc / yent Mar / in ere,
Line 1: iambic tetrameter
And he stopp / eth one / of three:
"By thy long / grey beard / and thy glitt / er ing eye
"Now where / fore stopp / est me?
Line 2: foot 1 = anapestic;
feet 2 & 3 = iambic
# of feet = trimeter
Line 3: feet 1, 3, & 4 = anapestic
foot 2 = iambic
# of feet = tetrameter
Line 4: iambic trimeter
iambic tetrameter
Other Basic Terminology
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Turn or Shift: a shifting of focus, either in
topic or tone, within a poem
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Refrain: repetition of a line or lines within a
poem. In musical lyrics, we call the refrain
that chorus.
The end . . . for now
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T
P
C
A
S
T
T
T-title: The meaning of the title without reference to the poem.
P-paraphrase: Put the poem, line by line, in your own words. DO NOT READ INTO
THE POEM. Only read on surface level.
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C-connotation: looking for deeper meaning.
 Diction and symbolism
 Imagery
 Metaphors and similes
 Rhyme scheme
 End rhymes and internal rhymes
 End stop
 Enjambment
 Alliteration
 Assonance
 Consonance
 Mood
 Allusions
 Punctuation
 Personification
A-attitude: Looking for the author’s tone. How is the writer speaking?
S-shifts: Looking for shifts in tone, action, and rhythm. Don’t just write the
number. Discuss how the shift(s) affects the poem.
T-title: reevaluate the title as it pertains to the poem
T-theme: What does the poem mean? What is it saying? How does it relate to
life?
Forms
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Generally, the form of a poem involves the way it is
visually arranged on the page. The number of stanzas,
rhyme scheme, traditional pattern (if any), spacing,
refrain, stanzaic breaks, and other such qualities can give
important clues to the overall meaning of the poem.
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Stanza: a group of lines set apart from the rest of the poem
by white space above and below
SONNET 1
FROM fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light'st flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content
And, tender churl, makest waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.
Iambic Pentameter
z
/
z
/
z
/
z
/
z
/
From
fair
est
creat
ures
we
des
ire
in
crease
z
/
z
/
z
/
z
/
z
/
That
there
by
beau
ty’s
rose
might
nev
er
die
z
/
z
/
z
/
z
/
z
/
But
as
the
should
in
time
de
crease
rip
er
Meters
Iambic pentameter (Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor
Faustus; Edna St. Vincent Millay, Sonnets)
Dactylic hexameter (Homer, Illiad; Virgil, Aenead, Ovid, "The
Metamorphoses")
Iambic tetrameter (Alexander Pope; Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy
Mistress")
Iambic heptameter (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Trochaic octameter (Edgar Allan Poe, "The Raven")
Anapestic tetrameter (Lewis Carroll, "The Hunting of the Snark"; Lord
Byron, Don Juan)
Trochaic tetrameter (many hymns)
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Ballad: a narrative poem that is characterized by
repetition and often by a repeated refrain
(recurrent phrase or series of phrases). Ballads
were originally meant to be sung. In its usual form,
the ballad stanza consists of a quatrain with four
beats in the first and third lines (iambic tetrameter)
and three beats in the second and fourth which also
rhyme (iambic trimester). Traditional ballad
subjects include murder, love, revenge, shipwrecks,
and the supernatural.