1. Poetry Rhythm Meter & Foot

2. Scansion … is the art of scanning a line or poem for meter and foot. In a structured poem, each line has a specific number of feet in a specific meter.

3. Meter A “stressed syllable” is a syllable that is emphasised in speech. It is represented, in scansion, by a forward slash (“ / ”). An “unstressed syllable” is spoken with less emphasis and it represented, in scansion, by a curved line (“ u ”).

4. Which syllable is emphasized? Meter (say, “MEE-ter”) /U Nathan (say NA-than)/U Natasha (say na-TA-sha) U/U Carolyn (say CA-ro-lyn)/UU Emphasis (say, EM-fa-sis) /UU

5. You try… Identify the emphasis in your full name with capitals and U’s and slashes. For example: MS pat-TER-son / U

6. (Metric) Feet A foot is a pair or group of syllables that repeats itself. …like a pair of feet… walkin’ along…

7. Some standard feet… An iamb is a classic syllable combination. It’s suppose to best mimic natural speech. Shakespeare used it throughout his plays. One unstressed, followed by one stressed syllable.

8. The iamb U/

9. The anapest UU/

10. The trochee [TRO-kee] /U

11. The dactyl /UU

12. Put foot and meter together…

13. A line with a dominant foot can be described by modifying the foot name into an adjective: Iambic Anapestic Trochaic Dactylic

14. Now count the number of feet in a line. The number of feet defines the meter. “Octameter” would be the correct adjective to describe a line with 8 feet

15. Naming the meter 1.Monometer 2.Dimeter 3.Trimeter 4.Tetrameter 5.Pentameter 6.Hexameter 7.Heptameter 8.Octameter

16. Here are the first two lines of Romeo & Juliet: Two households, both alike in dignity In fair Verona, where we lay our scene. 1. Copy them in your notes (double spaced). 2. Identify which syllables of these words are stressed/ naturally emphasized.

17. What is the recurring foot? Iambic!

18. How many iambs are there? Five!

19. So… five feet of iamb …is called… IAMBIC PENTAMETER YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

20. Limerick A limerick is a short comical poem with an aabba rhyme scheme. Limericks traditionally have 5 lines: Lines 1,2 and 5 are anapestic trimeter. Lines 3 & 4 are anapestic dimeter.

21. Limerick How would it look if you scanned it? Write it out in symbols in your notes. UU/UU/UU/ UU/UU/ UU/UU/UU/

22. That’s all for now. Try to write a couple limericks. They’re fun.