The Everything Writing Poetry Book (14 page)

Each line has been divided into five feet. This five-foot meter has a special name, which, like the names of the feet, comes from Greek. In Greek, the word
penta
means “five,” so any line with five feet is written in
pentameter
. The following chart names the meters most commonly used in English poetry:

•
Monometer:
one foot in a line

•
Dimeter:
two feet in a line

•
Trimeter:
three feet in a line

•
Tetrameter:
four feet in a line

•
Pentameter:
five feet in a line

•
Hexameter:
six feet in a line

•
Heptameter:
seven feet in a line

•
Octometer:
eight feet in a line

To categorize the meter of a line or a poem, you must name the foot pattern and then count the number of feet in a line. In the example from Shakespeare, the lines are written in
iambic pentameter
. Poems can also be written in iambic tetrameter, dactylic hexameter, or trochaic trimeter, and some poems may vary the meter from line to line.

Scansion

You are now almost ready to do a complete metrical analysis of any poem you read or write. This process is called
scansion
, or
scanning
a poem, and the whole task begins by finding the stressed and unstressed syllables. One more detail must be added to this process, and that detail takes you back to rhyme. As you look for the stressed and unstressed syllables, the feet, and the meter, you should also look for any rhyming patterns—called
rhyme schemes
—that may be shaping the poem.

Poem Analysis

To see what scansion looks like, examine the following complete analysis of Shakespeare's poem. The vertical lines divide the poem into feet, and the accents fall upon the stressed syllables (the unstressed syllables are left alone). The letter at the end of each line identifies the rhyme scheme. Two lines that rhyme will have a matching letter at their ends, while lines that don't rhyme with any others (none are present in this poem) are usually marked with an X.

First of all, take a look at the rhyme scheme. Almost all of the rhymes are true rhymes, the exception being the slant rhyme
field
and
held
, and all are masculine or rising rhymes. The letters to the right of the lines show a pattern of alternation, ABAB CDCD EFEF, until you get to the last two lines, GG, which form a
rhyming couplet
.

The poem itself is fourteen lines long, so a continuous pattern of alternation would not be possible. Hence, the final couplet gives the poem a harmonious end. Note that Shakespeare took great care to punctuate these last two lines as a separate sentence. He also gave them a meaning that shapes the ideas set forth in the previous twelve lines. Many of these characteristics make this poem a sonnet. The following chapter will include more information on poetic forms.

The meter of the poem, pentameter, is consistent from first to last. But the feet vary from line to line, with only the fifth line being iambic throughout. Three of the lines start with stressed syllables. Line twelve, beginning with the word
proving
, feels almost dactylic, until you get to the word
succession
.

One of the feet in the last line,
thou feel'st
, has been brought into the two-syllable count by a contraction,
feel'st
being a shortened form of
feelest
. This -
est
ending is one that was once used to make verbs agree with the pronoun
thou
, as the modern -
s
ending in
talks
or
sleeps
makes those verbs agree with the subjects
he, she
, or
it
.

Finally, a few words were given stress though they normally would not receive it. The words
where
in line six,
more
in line nine, and
this
in line thirteen are neither nouns nor verbs. But a speaker would emphasize these words in normal speech to highlight her meaning.

The word
where
is stressed in line six because the word group in which it appears does not contain a verb. In line five,
where
receives no stress because the verb
lies
carries it. The word
more
gains extra emphasis to highlight the increase in praise that is to come with having a beautiful child. The word
this
gains extra emphasis because it is being used to sum up the argument made in the previous four lines. It gains similar emphasis in line ten because it points out a specific child.

Measurements

To give you some practice with scansion, you can reference Shakespeare's Sonnet 73, which follows. Copy out the poem on a piece of paper, preferably in longhand. Then, applying the ideas set forth in this chapter, try to determine the stressed and unstressed syllables, the foot divisions, the meter, and the rhyme scheme. Once you have finished, check your exercise against the answer following. Good luck!

That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou seest the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long
.

Chapter 7
Poetic Forms