Scansion Examples

Scansion is the act of analyzing the lines of a poem to divide them into feet and mark accented and unaccented patterns of syllables. When we "scan" a poem or use scansion, we typically mark the syllables in some way-bold or underlined for accented syllables, or using accent marks over the syllables.

When spring comes 'round with her colorful wand

And waves it o'er ev'ry field and pond,

My heart begins to sing.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star. How I wonder what you are?

Up above the world so high. Like a diamond in the sky.

Examples of Scansion of Famous Poems:

Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven":

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter, so the scansion is made easy because the lines have five feet with a pattern of unstressed, stressed syllables. Here is Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare.

My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun;
Coral is far more red than her lips' red;
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;
And in some perfumes is there more delight
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;
I grant I never saw a goddess go;
My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground.
And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare
As any she belied with false compare.