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Scansion: The Art of Analyzing Verse

The document discusses the art of scansion, which is the process of analyzing the meter and rhythm in poetry. It explains that scansion involves counting syllables, identifying feet (iambic, trochaic, etc.), and determining where to place emphasis or pauses within lines. The document also discusses different types of poetry like blank verse, rhymed verse, and prose that Shakespeare used, noting how scansion is applied differently depending on the form.

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Jennifer Taylor Bunnell
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118 views

Scansion: The Art of Analyzing Verse

The document discusses the art of scansion, which is the process of analyzing the meter and rhythm in poetry. It explains that scansion involves counting syllables, identifying feet (iambic, trochaic, etc.), and determining where to place emphasis or pauses within lines. The document also discusses different types of poetry like blank verse, rhymed verse, and prose that Shakespeare used, noting how scansion is applied differently depending on the form.

Uploaded by

Jennifer Taylor Bunnell
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Scansion

the art of analyzing verse


What type of poem is this?
There once was a man from Nantucket a
Who kept all his cash in a bucket. a
But his daughter, named Nan b
Ran away with a man, b
And as for the bucket, Nantucket. a

LIMERICK
Does the METER of a limerick matter?
There was an old man with a beard,
Who said, “It is just as I feared!
Two owls and a hen,
Four larks and a wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard.”

So limericks have five lines, a strict rhyme scheme,


and a strict meter.
One time this man from Nantucket
Used a bucket to save his money.
Unfortunately, Nan, his daughter,
Took the bucket with her
When she ran away with a man.
So, yeah, rhyme and
meter matter . . . a lot!
Even though this is broken into
lines like verse, without meter, it is
essentially prose.
English is a language of syllabic accentuation. It is
made up of accented and unaccented syllables. You
couldn’t speak without accenting some syllables
over others even if you tried.

Potato
Po-ta-to
You even understand that the meaning of a word can
change depending on which syllable of the word we
accent.
CONTEST PRESENT
INVALID CONDUCT

PROTEST REBEL
Shakespeare’s characters speak in three distinct styles:

• Unrhymed Verse (called BLANK VERSE)


• Rhymed Verse
• Prose
Blank Verse
• Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter
• Poetically elevates language without making it
sound artificial
• There is more blank verse in Shakespeare’s plays
than rhymed verse or prose
• Shakespeare’s language of deep emotion, wise
advice, and genuine introspection
Rhymed Verse
• Feels less natural in terms of speech patterns
• Shakespeare uses it for the supernatural (witches,
fairies, etc.)
• Also used in songs, poetry, plays-within-the-play
• Chorus speaks in rhymed verse (prologue, epilogue,
etc.)
• Moments that feel heightened from reality
• Rhymed couplets often cap off a scene of blank verse
In either type of verse, we scan the lines to break
down the specific rhythm.

If the line follows perfect iambic pentameter, it’s


pretty easy.

But there are lots of times that the meter abandons


that perfect pattern.

When this happens, actors must make decisions about


how to deliver the line.
The Steps of Scansion
1. Define the words.

2. Determine the given circumstances.

3. Count the syllables and divide into feet.

4. Make decisions about how to “drive through” the line.

5. If there are fewer than ten syllables, ask yourself why.


More than ten syllables:
You must decide where in the line you are going to abandon
the pattern of “da DUM, da DUM, da DUM, da DUM, da
DUM.” It could be within the line or it could be at the end of
the line.

These both have eleven syllables. Should we treat them the


same?
It is the east and Juliet is the sun.

To be, or not to be—that is the question:


Fewer than ten syllables:
Sometimes a line of iambic pentameter is shared between two
speakers.
Hamlet: Be all my sins remembered
Ophelia: Good my lord.

Sometimes a severe pause is indicated.

Who will believe thee, Isabel?


Caesura
A caesura is a pause within a line. It may be easy to recognize
because there is punctuation there to indicate a pause. Or
maybe you want to add a caesura where there is no supporting
punctuation.
Let’s look at our two long lines again, this time focusing on if
we need (or want) a caesura:
It is the east and Juliet is the sun.

To be, or not to be—that is the question:


End-Stopping vs. Enjambment
Some lines make it clear that there should be a brief pause at
the end. Again, punctuation really helps figure out where a line
“stops” at the end.
To be, or not to be—that is the question:

Enjambment is when instead of pausing at the end of a line of


verse, we continue straight into the next line.
Whether ‘tis nobler of the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Substitution
Not all sets of two syllables are iambic:
iambic foot

trochaic foot

spondaic foot

pyrrhic foot
Look at these lines from Richard III:

Now is the win ter of our dis con tent

Made glor ious sum mer by this son of York

And all the clouds that lour’d up on our house

In the deep bos om of the o cean bur ied


In Macbeth, the witches speak in
trochaic tetrameter:
Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire burn and cauldron bubble.


Prose
Prose is ordinary language that does NOT have a metrical
structure.

Shakespeare uses prose for various reasons, but they more or


less boil down to two categories:
--a character is not quite themself (drunk, sleep
walking, depressed, suffering from insanity, etc.)

--the character is of a lower class, therefore they


wouldn’t speak with the elevated nature of verse
HAMLET: I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost
all my mirth, foregone all custom of exercises; and
indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this
goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a stale
promontory; this most excellent canopy the air, look
you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical
roof fretted with golden fire—why, it appeareth no
other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation
of vapours.

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