Scansion

scansion, the analysis and visual representation of a poem’s metrical pattern. Adapted from the classical method of analyzing ancient Greek and Roman quantitative verse, scansion in English prosody employs a system of symbols to reveal the mechanics of a poem—i.e., the predominant type of foot (the smallest metrical unit of stressed and unstressed syllables); the number of feet per line; and the rhyme scheme. The purpose of scansion is to enhance the reader’s sensitivity to the ways in which rhythmic elements in a poem convey meaning. Deviations in a poem’s metrical pattern are often significant to its meaning.

There are three major types of English scansion: the graphic, the musical, and the acoustic. The primary symbols used in graphic scansion, the most common type of scansion, are: (— or ´) to represent a syllable that is stressed in context; (˘) to represent a syllable that is unstressed in context; a vertical line (|) to indicate a division between feet; and a double vertical line (‖) to show a caesura, a pause within a line of verse. Using these symbols, graphic scansion begins by marking the accented, then the unaccented syllables according to the natural rhythm of speech. It cannot, however, record the subtle variations of language, and is, therefore, a highly simplified analysis.

Because few poems are absolutely regular, metre is usually determined by the type of foot that appears most frequently, as iambic pentameter or trochaic tetrameter. Following are the last two lines from Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” which are written in iambic pentameter; the lines are scanned in the graphic method. The spondaic foot (two stressed syllables) in the first line is a common variation in iambic rhythm.

Both musical and acoustic scansion, highly complex systems, are more sensitive than graphic scansion to the tonal and accentual variety of speech. Musical symbols (e.g., eighth notes for unstressed syllables, quarter or half notes for stressed syllables, and musical rests for pauses) record accentual differences. Machines such as the oscillograph are used by modern acoustic linguists to catch even slightly varying degrees of stress.