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A 'system of scansion' is a way to mark the metrical patterns of a line of poetry. In classical poetry, these patterns are based on the different lengths of each vowel sound, and in English poetry, they are based on the different stresses placed on each syllable. In both cases, the metre often has a regular foot. Over the years, many different systems have been established to mark the scansion of a poem.
The original marks for scansion came from the quantitative meter of classical prosody where long syllables were marked with a macron( ¯), and short syllables were marked with a breve ( ˘).
In the accentual prosody of English verse, these marks are still sometimes used to represent stressed and unstressed syllables. However, this robs them of their still potentially useful role in marking quantity (that is, the duration of syllables). Harvey Gross criticizes Herbert Grierson for his use of this 'inappropriate' notation.
( ˘).
Fussell, Turco, and Williams all use the ictus for stressed syllables, and the classical breve for unstressed syllables. Corn describes this as a notation which evolved from the classical notation.
Corn goes on to state that the most common approach adopted for marking fine gradations of stress has been to add the symbol for 'intermediate stress'.
Turco's version of this is to use a dot (·) to indicate the middle syllable in a string of three unstressed syllables has been 'promoted' to a ''secondary'' or weaker stress.
Baldwin regards the use of the ictus (or slash) and x notation as 'normal', and argues for its benefits. By avoiding the macron and breve traditionally associated with the quantity (length) of syllables, ictus and x notation avoids possible confusions; it also has the advantage of being easily typed. This notation is used by, for example, Steele, and some less specialist books. This is the notation used in the ''Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics.'' It carries the significant disadvantage of its counter-intuitive use of an x to mark an absence of stress (given that x 'marks the spot' in common usage and draws the eye more readily than the ictus).
Main articles: Bridges' Prosody of Accentual Verse
In developing a prosody for accentual verse, Robert Bridges classifies the following types of syllable:
The linguists George Trager and Henry Lee Smith described a four-stress system in their ''An Outline of English Structure,'' (1951). Hobsbaum describes and uses the system. Corn describes this system as "a little confusing to the eye" and prefers to use a numerical system such as Jespersen's original four-stress system (see below). Robert Wallace (poet), in his controversial 1993 essay 'Meter in English,' asserted that "We should ''never'' use four degrees of speech stress for scanning." His objections include that any four-stress system abolishes the spondee, and that Trager-Smith, for example, is "too much machinery ... to keep track of".
In 1900, Otto Jespersen in his "Notes on Metre" was the first to use a four-stress system.. He used the numbers 1 to 4, to indicate varying degrees of stress: strong, half-strong, half-weak, and weak.
Corn uses a simple numerical notation, much like Jespersen, with 1 representing the weakest syllable, and 3 indicating the heaviest stress. He argues that in Jespersen's system the half-strong and the half-weak are the hardest to distinguish, and should be merged.
Attridge defines a fairly complicated and descriptive notation:
This has not always been viewed kindly. For example Vladimir Nabokov in his ''Notes on Prosody'' says: "In my casual perusals, I have of course slammed shut without further ado any such works on English prosody in which I glimpsed a crop of musical notes." (pages 3–4)
# see Harvey Gross and Robert McDowell, ''Sound and Form in Modern Poetry'', ISBN 0-472-06517-3. page 4. Gross is referring to Grierson's ''Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century'' Oxford University Press, 1921. ISBN 0-19-881102-0. page xxiv.
# see Paul Fussell, ''Poetic Meter and Poetic Form,'' McGraw Hill, 1965, revised 1979. ISBN 0-07-553606-4.
# see Lewis Turco, '' ISBN 0-87451-380-4 and ISBN 0-87451-381-2 (paperback), original 1968, expanded version 1986.
# see Miller Williams, ''Patterns of Poetry,'' Louisiana State University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-8071-1253-4. ISBN 0-8071-1330-1 (paperback).
# see Turco, ''op. cit.'' page 15.
# Alfred Corn, ''The Poem's Heartbeat,'' ISBN 1-885266-40-5, Story Line Press, 1997. page 27.
# "English feet concern themselves with stressed and unstressed syllables, normally notated / and ×. The snag is that some continental measures, including a number of forms that have found their way into English, are concerned with long and short syllables, generally notated – and ⌣. " — page 79, Michael Baldwin, ''The Way to Write Poetry,'' Elm Tree Books / Hamish Hamilton, 1982. ISBN 0-241-10749-0.
# see Timothy Steele, ''All the fun's in how you say a thing,'' Ohio University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8214-1260-4.
# see for example, Peter Makin (editor) ''Basil Bunting on Poetry,'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8018-6166-7. See page 199.
# see for example the article on 'Iamb' (page 360), ''Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Enlarged Edition,'' Macmillan, 1965, enlarged 1974. ISBN 0-333-18122-0 (paperback).
# see Robert Bridges, ''Milton's Prosody, with a chapter on Accentual Verse and Notes''
# see Philip Hobsbaum, ''Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form'' Routledge, 1996. ISBN 0-415-08797-X.
# see Corn, ''op. cit.'' page 29.
# Wallace's essay is reprinted in David Baker (editor), ''Meter in English, A Critical Engagement,'' University of Arkansas Press, 1996. ISBN 1-55728-444-X. See page 34 for comments on Trager Smith.
# see Wallace's essay in Baker, ''op. cit.'' page 30.
# see Corn, ''op. cit.'' page 30.
# see Derek Attridge, '','' Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-521-42369-4. Appendix I, page 213
★ Edward Bysshe, ''Rules for Making English Verse''
★ Bastiaan Adriaan Pieter van Dam, ''Chapters on English Printing, Prosody, and Pronunciation''
★ Alan Holder, ''Rethinking Meter''
★ Tom Hood, ''A Practical Guide to English Versification''
★ George Saintsbury, ''Manual of English Prosody''
Classical scansion — macron and breve
The original marks for scansion came from the quantitative meter of classical prosody where long syllables were marked with a macron( ¯), and short syllables were marked with a breve ( ˘).
| Symbol | Syllable Type | Description |
| ¯ | Long | Syllable has a long duration |
| ˘ | Short | Syllable has a short duration |
Classical system adopted to English — macron and breve
In the accentual prosody of English verse, these marks are still sometimes used to represent stressed and unstressed syllables. However, this robs them of their still potentially useful role in marking quantity (that is, the duration of syllables). Harvey Gross criticizes Herbert Grierson for his use of this 'inappropriate' notation.
( ˘).
| ˘ ¯ ˘ ¯ ˘ ¯ ˘ ¯ ˘ ¯ |
| But 'SOFT'! What 'LIGHT' through 'YON'der 'WIN'dow 'BREAKS'? |
| Symbol | Syllable Type | Description |
| – | Stressed | Syllable carries the stress |
| Unstressed | Syllable is not stressed |
Ictus and breve
Fussell, Turco, and Williams all use the ictus for stressed syllables, and the classical breve for unstressed syllables. Corn describes this as a notation which evolved from the classical notation.
| ˘ / ˘ / ˘ / ˘ / ˘ / |
| But 'SOFT'! What 'LIGHT' through 'YON'der 'WIN'dow 'BREAKS'? |
| Symbol | Syllable Type | Description |
| / | Stressed | Syllable carries the stress |
| Unstressed | Syllable is not stressed |
Corn goes on to state that the most common approach adopted for marking fine gradations of stress has been to add the symbol for 'intermediate stress'.
| Symbol | Syllable Type | Description |
| / | Stressed | Syllable carries strong stress |
| Intermediate stress | Stress on syllable is between strong and weak | |
| Unstressed | Syllable is not stressed; that is, weak. |
Turco's version of this is to use a dot (·) to indicate the middle syllable in a string of three unstressed syllables has been 'promoted' to a ''secondary'' or weaker stress.
| Symbol | Syllable Type | Description |
| / | Stressed | Syllable carries strong stress |
| · | Secondary stress | A weak syllable 'promoted' to secondary stress. |
| Unstressed | Syllable is not stressed; that is, weak. |
Ictus and x
Baldwin regards the use of the ictus (or slash) and x notation as 'normal', and argues for its benefits. By avoiding the macron and breve traditionally associated with the quantity (length) of syllables, ictus and x notation avoids possible confusions; it also has the advantage of being easily typed. This notation is used by, for example, Steele, and some less specialist books. This is the notation used in the ''Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics.'' It carries the significant disadvantage of its counter-intuitive use of an x to mark an absence of stress (given that x 'marks the spot' in common usage and draws the eye more readily than the ictus).
| x / x / x / x / x / |
| But 'SOFT'! What 'LIGHT' through 'YON'der 'WIN'dow 'BREAKS'? |
| Symbol | Syllable Type | Description |
| / | Stressed | Syllable carries the stress |
| x | Unstressed | Syllable is not stressed |
Robert Bridges' accentual prosody
Main articles: Bridges' Prosody of Accentual Verse
In developing a prosody for accentual verse, Robert Bridges classifies the following types of syllable:
| Symbol | Syllable Type | Description |
| Stressed | Syllable carries the stress | |
| – | Heavy | Is genuinely long, slows down the reading. For example: ''broad'', ''bright'', ''down''. |
| Light | All syllables with short vowels, even those that would be long 'by position' in Classical terms. That is, if the consonants around a short vowel do not genuinely retard the syllable then it will be counted 'light'. Light also includes all classically short syllables. For example the second syllables of 'brighter' and 'brightest' are both light, despite the consonants in the latter. | |
| Very Short | Very short syllables, such as a syllable containing a short 'i'. Bridges' symbol is actually a shorter version of . |
| ˘ ⋀ ˘ ⋀ ˘ ⋀ ˘ ⋀ ˘ ⋀ |
| But 'SOFT'! What 'LIGHT' through 'YON'der 'WIN'dow 'BREAKS'? |
Trager-Smith notation
The linguists George Trager and Henry Lee Smith described a four-stress system in their ''An Outline of English Structure,'' (1951). Hobsbaum describes and uses the system. Corn describes this system as "a little confusing to the eye" and prefers to use a numerical system such as Jespersen's original four-stress system (see below). Robert Wallace (poet), in his controversial 1993 essay 'Meter in English,' asserted that "We should ''never'' use four degrees of speech stress for scanning." His objections include that any four-stress system abolishes the spondee, and that Trager-Smith, for example, is "too much machinery ... to keep track of".
| Symbol | Syllable Type | Description |
| / | Primary Stress | Heavy stress |
| ⋀ | Secondary Stress | Medium Stress |
| Tertiary Stress | Medium-Light | |
| ⌣ | Weak | Light syllable |
Jespersen's system
In 1900, Otto Jespersen in his "Notes on Metre" was the first to use a four-stress system.. He used the numbers 1 to 4, to indicate varying degrees of stress: strong, half-strong, half-weak, and weak.
| Symbol | Syllable Type | Description |
| 4 | Strong | Heavy stress |
| 3 | Half-Strong | Medium Stress |
| 2 | Half-Weak | Medium-Light Syllable |
| 1 | Weak | Light syllable |
Corn's three-stress numerical system
Corn uses a simple numerical notation, much like Jespersen, with 1 representing the weakest syllable, and 3 indicating the heaviest stress. He argues that in Jespersen's system the half-strong and the half-weak are the hardest to distinguish, and should be merged.
| Symbol | Syllable Type | Description |
| 3 | Strong | Strong Stress |
| 2 | Medium | Either half-strong or half-weak |
| 1 | Weak | Light syllable; unstressed. |
Attridge's single-line scansion
Attridge defines a fairly complicated and descriptive notation:
| Symbol | Syllable type | Description |
| / | Stressed syllable | In metrical verse this is used for a stressed syllable not functioning as a beat (i.e. 'demoted') |
| Syllable with secondary stress | Secondary or subordinate stress. In metrical verse this is used for such a syllable that is not functioning as a beat (i.e. 'demoted') | |
| / | Stressed beat | Stressed syllable functioning as a Beat |
| Secondary stress beat | Syllable with secondary or subordinate stress which is functioning as a beat | |
| x | Unstressed syllable | An unstressed syllable. In metrical verse this is used for such a syllable that is functioning as an offbeat or as part of an offbeat |
| x | Unstressed beat | An unstressed Syllable functioning as a Beat (i.e. promoted) |
| - | Elided syllable | |
| [/] | Virtual beat | |
| [x] | Virtual offbeat | |
| /̳ | Primary beat in quadruple verse | The symbol is a slash with double underlining. |
| a/ | Stress with alliteration | Used in Alliterative verse |
| | | Division | Division between phrases or stress groups |
| R | Rising stress group | |
| F | Falling stress group | |
| M | Mixed or monosyllabic stress group | |
| ANT | Anticipation | Phrase of anticipation |
| ARR | Arrival | Phrase of arrival |
| STA | Statement | Phrase of statement |
| EXT | Extension | Phrase of extension |
| > | Continuation | Continuation of phrase over line juncture |
Lanier's musical notation
This has not always been viewed kindly. For example Vladimir Nabokov in his ''Notes on Prosody'' says: "In my casual perusals, I have of course slammed shut without further ado any such works on English prosody in which I glimpsed a crop of musical notes." (pages 3–4)
Notes
# see Harvey Gross and Robert McDowell, ''Sound and Form in Modern Poetry'', ISBN 0-472-06517-3. page 4. Gross is referring to Grierson's ''Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century'' Oxford University Press, 1921. ISBN 0-19-881102-0. page xxiv.
# see Paul Fussell, ''Poetic Meter and Poetic Form,'' McGraw Hill, 1965, revised 1979. ISBN 0-07-553606-4.
# see Lewis Turco, '' ISBN 0-87451-380-4 and ISBN 0-87451-381-2 (paperback), original 1968, expanded version 1986.
# see Miller Williams, ''Patterns of Poetry,'' Louisiana State University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-8071-1253-4. ISBN 0-8071-1330-1 (paperback).
# see Turco, ''op. cit.'' page 15.
# Alfred Corn, ''The Poem's Heartbeat,'' ISBN 1-885266-40-5, Story Line Press, 1997. page 27.
# "English feet concern themselves with stressed and unstressed syllables, normally notated / and ×. The snag is that some continental measures, including a number of forms that have found their way into English, are concerned with long and short syllables, generally notated – and ⌣. " — page 79, Michael Baldwin, ''The Way to Write Poetry,'' Elm Tree Books / Hamish Hamilton, 1982. ISBN 0-241-10749-0.
# see Timothy Steele, ''All the fun's in how you say a thing,'' Ohio University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8214-1260-4.
# see for example, Peter Makin (editor) ''Basil Bunting on Poetry,'' Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-8018-6166-7. See page 199.
# see for example the article on 'Iamb' (page 360), ''Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Enlarged Edition,'' Macmillan, 1965, enlarged 1974. ISBN 0-333-18122-0 (paperback).
# see Robert Bridges, ''Milton's Prosody, with a chapter on Accentual Verse and Notes''
# see Philip Hobsbaum, ''Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form'' Routledge, 1996. ISBN 0-415-08797-X.
# see Corn, ''op. cit.'' page 29.
# Wallace's essay is reprinted in David Baker (editor), ''Meter in English, A Critical Engagement,'' University of Arkansas Press, 1996. ISBN 1-55728-444-X. See page 34 for comments on Trager Smith.
# see Wallace's essay in Baker, ''op. cit.'' page 30.
# see Corn, ''op. cit.'' page 30.
# see Derek Attridge, '','' Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-521-42369-4. Appendix I, page 213
Other references
★ Edward Bysshe, ''Rules for Making English Verse''
★ Bastiaan Adriaan Pieter van Dam, ''Chapters on English Printing, Prosody, and Pronunciation''
★ Alan Holder, ''Rethinking Meter''
★ Tom Hood, ''A Practical Guide to English Versification''
★ George Saintsbury, ''Manual of English Prosody''
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