Scansion - Elements

Elements

Minimally, graphic scansion requires only 2 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 this 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 the pipe symbol (|). 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 spent

Not all prosodists agree that foot scansion is helpful. 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 this 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 pipe (|) then caesurae will be marked with a double pipe (||) 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 pipe. 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 gold

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