English 10 / Unit 5: Poetry: Form, Sound and Meaning
5.1 Meter and Scansion
Notes
Scansion is marking the stressed (/) and unstressed (u) syllables in a line to find its meter.
| Foot | Pattern | Example word |
|---|---|---|
| Iamb | u / | a-WAY |
| Trochee | / u | GAR-den |
| Anapest | u u / | in-ter-VENE |
| Dactyl | / u u | MER-ri-ly |
| Spondee | / / | HEART-BREAK |
- Line lengths: trimeter (3 feet), tetrameter (4), pentameter (5), hexameter (6), octameter (8).
- Poe's "The Raven" (1845) is trochaic: "ONCE up-ON a MID-night DREAR-y."
- Blank verse is unrhymed iambic pentameter, used by Shakespeare and Milton.
- Poets break meter on purpose to stress a word or show disruption.
Practice
"'Twas the NIGHT be-fore CHRIST-mas" uses which foot?
Two unstressed syllables then a stressed one: da-da-DUM.
Unrhymed iambic pentameter is called:
Blank verse has meter but no rhyme.
A line has four trochees. Its meter is:
Trochee is the foot; four feet is tetrameter.
Ready for more? Take the Unit 5 test.