1. Meter, Scansion, and Rhythm
Poetry
Meter, Scansion, and Rhythm

2. How to Scan a Poem Scansion
Determining the rhythm and meter of a poem by dividing lines into feet and marking the stressed and unstressed syllables
Rhythm—Pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line
Meter—Number of feet in a line
Divide the words into syllables and look for stressed ( ) and unstressed ( )
E laine E laine
Ashley Ash ley

3. Feet—Yes, Poetry Has Feet
A foot in poetry is equal to a measure in music. It is a unit—defined by the number of syllables (beats) Thus, the following types of feet.

4. Iambic I want to go to I ta ly And eat a piz za pie
Pattern: Unstressed/Stressed/Unstressed/Stressed = Iamb
Also called Iambic (2 syllable units)

5. Trochee or Trochaic Double, double, toil and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble
Pattern: Stressed/Unstressed/Stressed/Unstressed = Trochaic
(2 syllable unit)

6. Anapest For the moon never beams Without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful
Annabel Lee
Pattern: Unstressed/Unstressed/Stressed/Unstressed/Unstressed/
Stressed= Anapest
(3 syllable unit)

7. Dactyl or Dactylic Picture yourself in a boat on a river
With tangerine tree (ee)s
And marmala(ade )ski (i) (ies)
Pattern: Stressed/Unstressed/Unstressed/Stressed/Unstressed/
Unstressed = Dactylic
(3 syllable unit)

8. Meter
Number of feet in a line of poetry determines the meter. So… One foot Monometer Two feet Dimeter Three feet Trimeter Four feet Tetrameter Five feet Pentameter Six feet Hexameter Seven feet Heptameter Eight feet Octameter

9. Determining Meter Picture yourself in a boat on a river
Ditalyic Tetrameter
Double, double, toil and trouble
Trochaic Tetrameter
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Iambic Pentameter

10. Sonnet 18 (Pentameter)
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

11. Hymn (in Tetrameter)
By the rude bridge/ that arched the flood, Their flag to A/pril’s breeze unfurled, Here once the em/battled farmers stood, And fired the shot/ heard round the world. –Ralph Waldo Emerson

12. My Papa’ Waltz (Trimeter)
...We romped/ until/ the pans Slid from/ the ki/tchen shelf; My mo/ther's coun/tenance Could not/ unfrown/ itself. --Theodore Roethke