Scansion ( , rhymes with mansion; verb: to scan), or a system of scansion, is the method or practice of determining and (usually) graphically representing the metrical pattern of a line of verse. In classical poetry, these patterns are quantitative based on the different lengths of each syllable, while in English poetry, they are based on the different levels of stress placed on each syllable. In both cases, the meter often has a regular foot. Over the years, many systems have been established to mark the scansion of a poem.
Overview
Systems of scansion, and the assumptions (often tacit or even subconscious) that underlie them, are so numerous and contradictory that it is often difficult to tell whether differences in scansion indicate opposed metrical theories, conflicting understandings of a line's linguistic character, divergent practical goals, or whether they merely constitute a trivial argument over who has the "better ear" for verse. There is even a debate among scholars as to what systems were inherited from Greek and Roman poetry.
To understand any form of scansion, it is necessary to appreciate the difference between meter and rhythm.
The rhythm of language is infinitely varied. All aspects of language contribute to it: loudness, pitch, duration, pause, syntax, repeated elements, length of phrases, and frequency of polysyllabic words. As C. S. Lewis observes, "If the scansion of a line meant all the phonetic facts, no two lines would scan the same way."
Meter is another matter. It is an ordering of language by means of an extremely limited subset of its characteristics. In English (and in many modern languages) the language is ordered by syllabic stress. All other aspects of language are present, indeed they are vital to the rhythm of the verse; but they are not ordered by the meter.
However, marking stress is not the same as marking meter. A perfectly regular line of iambic pentameter may have anywhere from 2 to 9 stresses, but it is still felt to exhibit 5 pulses or beats. It can most easily be understood through the principle of relative stress. An unstressed syllable between 2 even slightly weaker syllables may be perceived as a beat; and the reverse is true of a stressed syllable between 2 even slightly stronger syllables. These phenomena are called "promotion" and "demotion". Thus a syllable, regardless of its level of stress, that realizes a beat is ictic; and a syllable, regardless of its level of stress, that does not is nonictic. Ictus refers to the position within a line that is experienced as a beat, or to the syllable that fills it.
T. V. F. Brogan issues a stern warning about the temptations of overly detailed scansion:
Since meter is a system of binary oppositions in which syllables are either marked or unmarked (long or short; stressed or unstressed), a binary code is all that is necessary to transcribe it. ... It is natural to want to enrich scansion with other kinds of analyses which capture more of the phonological and syntactic structure of the line ... But all such efforts exceed the boundary of strict metrical analysis, moving into descriptions of linguistic rhythm, and thus serve to blur or dissolve the distinction between meter and rhythm. Strictly speaking, scansion marks which syllables are metrically prominent – i.e. ictus and nonictus – not how much. Scansions which take account of more levels of metrical degree than two, or intonation, or the timing of syllables are all guilty of overspecification.T. V. F. Brogan: "Scansion" in Brogan (1993), p 1118.
Prosodists seldom explicitly state what they are marking in their scansions. For clarity, scansions that mark only ictus and nonictus will be called "metrical scansions", and those which mark stress or other linguistic characteristics will be called "rhythmic scansions".
Elements
Minimally, graphic scansion requires only two symbols, designating ictic and non-ictic syllables. These symbols are typically placed over the first vowel in every syllable. Some prosodists indicate only ictic (or, in rhythmic scansion, only stressed) syllables, but it is not ideal since the number, position, and character of non-ictic syllables is also metrically significant.
Additionally, many prosodists divide a line into feet—the minimal repeated units—using a vertical bar (|). When feet are thus designated, words that span feet are divided without hyphens, and any punctuation that occurs at a foot break is typically omitted.
× / × / × / × / × / When I | consid | er how | my light | is spentJohn Milton: "On His Blindness" line 1.
Not all prosodists agree that foot scansion is helpful.Edward Bysshe, whose Art of English Poetry was quite popular throughout the 18th century, was probably the earliest influential prosodist to deny that feet play a part in English verse. Though George R. Stewart used foot terminology to describe verse, his scansion ignored feet, concentrating instead on syntactic groupings. Most modern dissent, however, can be seen in terms of Otto Jespersen's resolute denial of the "fallacy of the foot" (1979, p 109); he described verse lines instead as a series of "weak" and "strong" positions, and both generative metrists and "rhythmi-metrical" scanners have generally followed in his anti-footsteps. Halle & Keyser (1972, p 222) dismiss the foot, their signal concept the "Stress Maximum" explicitly transcending (or transgressing) its boundaries. Paul Kiparsky however (a later generativist) reinstates the concept of the foot ("Generative Metrics" in Preminger & Brogan 1993, pp 452–53). Derek Attridge (1982, p 17) says, "[a]t best, then, the division of lines into feet adds nothing, at worst it hinders accurate analysis of the metrical variations which all readers perceive." Alone among the "rhythmi-metrical" scanners Peter L. Groves reintroduces "notional" feet at a very general level (they figure in his verse theory but not in his actual scansions), but he distances his notion from that of traditional metrics (1998, p 107). T.V.F. Brogan ("Foot" in Preminger & Brogan 1993, p 419) threads the needle, saying that the foot is "more than a mere analytic tool, a device of scansion: it is a principle of structure" yet that it is "not necessarily an element in poetic composition ... and it is almost certainly not an element of performance"; and finally that "[i]n scansion, it can be used to describe and analyze verse whose regularities support it, and not verse which does not." For example, in trisyllabic measures (anapestic, amphibrachic, dactylic) it is often quite arbitrary where one divides the feet, and the salient fact seems to be the number of non-ictic syllables —in this case two— between each ictus, rather than whether the repeated pattern is imagined as ××/, ×/×, or /××. Foot analysis tends to imply that there is a special relationship among syllables within feet which does not apply across feet, but it is doubtful. Furthermore, iambic pentameter (despite its name) may be better described as a series of 10 positions than of 5 feet, especially since the sequence ××// may be interpreted as the swapping of ictic and non-ictic positions across feet, suggesting that if feet constitute any kind of boundary at all, it is a porous one indeed.
Finally, a caesura may be indicated. In the great majority of verse in English caesurae are not part of the metrical pattern, and generally it is better not to include them in English scansion. If they are to be marked: (1) if feet are being marked with a bar (|) then caesurae will be marked with a double bar (||) and will replace the foot marker when they occur in the same place; (2) if feet are not marked then caesurae may be marked with a single bar. The fourteener typically does have a metrical caesura; examples of style (1) and (2) are shown below:
× / × / × / × / × / × / × / (1) The prince | ly pal | ace of | the sun || stood gor | geous to | behold × / × / × / × / × / × / × / (2) On stately pillars builded high | of yellow burnished goldArthur Golding: Ovid's Metamorphoses book II, lines 1–2.
Classical notation Modern scansion is a result of adaptation of classical quantitative scansion, where meter was defined on the duration of each syllable in a line. Multiple symbols are used:
Common 2- 3- and 4-level notations
2-level notations
Metrical scansion explicitly requires a 2-level notation. Because of the variety of stress levels in language, 2-level notation is not adequate for a rhythmic scansion of any sensitivity. Yet, because of the confusion between rhythm and meter, the number of levels used is no sure indication of a prosodist's intent.
Classical Slash & breve Slash & x Notes – / / Ictus (or stressed syllable in rhythmic scansion) ˘ ˘ x or × Nonictus (or unstressed syllable in rhythmic scansion)
Classical: This notation simply retains the classical symbols for "long" and "short" syllables – the macron (or longum) and breve (or brevis) – and repurposes them for "ictic" and "nonictic" (or "stressed" and "unstressed"). Because it quite literally doesn't mean what it says, it is generally out of favor with metrists. This notation has been used by George Saintsbury and Edgar Allan Poe.
Slash & breve: This notation replaces the macron with a slash (or the graphically similar acute accent), the more common symbol for either ictus or stress. Though the classical breve is still present, its pairing with slash indicates that it has been relieved of its original "short" meaning. This notation has the advantage that its symbols can be incorporated into words as diacritics ("áccĕntĕd sýllăblĕ"). However, this can be seen as implying that syllables are being marked as stressed or short which would be a nonsensical scansion. This notation has been used by Paul Fussell and Miller Williams.
Slash & x: This notation is unambiguous (apart from the question of whether "/" indicates stress or ictus), easy to type, and frequently used. It is the notation preferred by the Poetry WikiProject for Wikipedia articles displaying scansion. It could be utilized as diacritics only using the relatively obscure x above ("aͯ") or times above ("a̽") and therefore typically set in 2 lines (1 for the verse, and 1 for the scansion). This notation has been used by James McAuley, Timothy Steele, Robert B. Shaw, and the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics; and as a secondary method by Derek Attridge.
× / × / × / × / × / When Ajax strives, some rock's vast weight to throw, × / × / × / × / × / The line too labours, and the words move slow;Alexander Pope: An Essay on Criticism lines 370-71.
This metrical scansion does not attempt to show the various rhythmic features that would occur in a competent reading. Nor does it imply that the line should be read monotonously in only 2 registers ("when Ajax STRIVES some ROCK'S vast WEIGHT to THROW"). Its simple function is to show how these lines relate to other lines of verse by marking whether syllables fill ictic or nonictic positions in the line.
3-level notations
Although both lines of Pope quoted above are metrically identical regular pentameters, they create that same basic metrical pattern in very different ways. To show it, one must note the rhythm, not just the meter, of the lines, and recourse must be had to additional levels of notation. In the instance below, the third symbol (\) designates stressed but demoted syllables:
× / × / \ / \ / × / When Ajax strives, some rock's vast weight to throw, × / \ / × × × / \ / The line too labours, and the words move slow;