Rhyming & Scanning

I want you to take the following poem by Donald Hall and tell me how to scan it and find its rhyme scheme. (I have provided very detailed explanations of scansion and rhyme scheme after the poem.)

Donald Hall

"Advent"

When I see the cradle rocking
What is it that I see?
I see a rood on the hilltop
Of Calvary.


When I hear the cattle lowing
What is it that they say?
They say that shadows feasted
At Tenebrae.


When I know that the grave is empty,
Absence eviscerates me,
And I dwell in a cavernous, constant
Horror vacui.

SCANSION:

Scansion is the dividing of verse (lines of poetry) into feet by indicating accents and counting syllables to determine the meter of a poem. It is a means of studying the mechanical elements by which the poet has established his rhythmical effects. The meter, once the scanning has been performed, is named according to the type and number of feet employed in a verse.

Following are the major types of meter (the adjective form is in parenthesis). The indicates an unstressed syllable; the indicates a stressed one.

Iambus (iambic)

Trochee (trochaic)

Anapest (anapestic)

Dactyl (dactylic)

Spondee (spondaic)

Pyrrhus (pyrrhic)


A verse of one foot (of any type) is called monometer; of two feet, dimeter; of three feet, trimeter; of four feet, tetrameter; of five feet, pentameter; of six feet, hexameter; of seven feet, heptameter; of eight feet, octameter. Thus a verse consisting of two trochaic feet is called trochaic dimeter; of five iambic feet, iambic pentameter, and so on.

Let's take a look at the opening line of Shakespeare's sonnet 147 to see how scansion works:



The line follows a pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed. That makes it iambic. If we break the line into iambic feet (the number of iambs), we see that there are five. Thus, following the naming convention mentioned above, it is iambic pentameter.

Scanning a line in this way helps to understand its structure; however, even the best of verse sometimes only approximates the pattern.

Scansion is often considered to include rhyme scheme as well as verse analysis. To determine the rhyme scheme, assign a letter to the last word of each line. For example, consider the first quatrain of Shakespeare's sonnet 147:

My love is as a fever, longing still a
For that which longer nurseth the disease, b
Feeding on that which doth preserve the ill, a
Th' uncertain sickly appetite to please. b

The first line ends with "still," so we assign the value a to it. Because the second line does not rhyme with the first one, we assign it a value of b. Line three rhymes with line one, so it has the same value of a. The fourth line rhymes with the second, so it gets a b.

Adapted from C. Hugh Holman, A Handbook to Literature, 3rd ed. (Indianapolis: Odyssey press, 1972).

RHYME SCHEME:

he most common characteristic of formal verse is rhyme. While characteristics like meter, syllable counting, and regular structure are also used in formal verse, rhyme is by far the most pervasive, appearing in nearly every major variety of formal verse.

A rhyme scheme is a regular pattern of rhyme, one that is consistent throughout the extent of the poem. Poems that rhyme without any regular pattern can be called rhyming poems, but only those poems with an unvarying pattern to their rhymes can be said to have a rhyme scheme.

Rhyme schemes are labeled according to their rhyme sounds. Every rhyme sound is given its own letter of the alphabet to distinguish it from the other rhyme sounds that may appear in the poem. For example, the first rhyme sound of a poem is designated as a. Every time that rhyme sound appears in the poem, no matter where it is found, it is called a. The second rhyme sound to appear in the poem is designated b. Every other time that rhyme sound appears in the poem, no matter where it is found, it is called b. The third rhyme sound to appear would be c, the fourth d, and so on, for as many rhyme sounds as appear in the poem.

The following short poem illustrates the labeling of a rhyme scheme.

There once was a big brown cat a
That liked to eat a lot of mice. b
He got all round and fat a
Because they tasted so nice. b

This bit of elegant verse shows a very simple rhyme scheme. The first rhyme sound we encounter, at the end of the first line, is cat. Because it is the first rhyme sound, it is labeled as a. Every time that rhyme sound is repeated, any time something rhymes with cat, it is also called a. Line three ends with fat, which rhymes with cat, so it is also an a.
The second rhyme sound comes at the end of the second line, mice. As the second rhyme sound it is called b, and so are any other following lines that rhyme with it, such as nice in line four.

The following three poems are excellent examples of poems with rhyme schemes. Note that the third selection, "The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe, features internal rhyme in some of its lines, and standard end-word rhyme in the other lines. In effect, it actually has two rhyme schemes operating simultaneously.

* * * * *

Alone
Edgar Allen Poe

From childhood’s hour I have not been a
As others were; I have not seen a
As others saw; I could not bring b
My passions from a common spring. b
From the same source I have not taken c
My sorrow; I could not awaken c
My heart to joy at the same tone; d
And all I loved, I loved alone. d
Then—in my childhood, in the dawn e
Of a most stormy life—was drawn e
From every depth of good and ill f
The mystery which binds me still: f
From the torrent, or the fountain, g
From the red cliff of the mountain, g
From the sun that round me rolled h
In its autumn tint of gold, h
From the lightning in the sky i
As it passed me flying by, i
From the thunder and the storm, j
And the cloud that took the form j
(When the rest of Heaven was blue) k
Of a demon in my view. k

* * * * *


Dulce Et Decorum Est
Wilfred Owen

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, a
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, b
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs a
And towards our distant rest began to trudge. b
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots c
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; d
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots c
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind. d

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!---An ecstasy of fumbling, e
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; f
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling e
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime... f
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light, g
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. h

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, g
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. h

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace i
Behind the wagon that we flung him in, j
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, i
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; j
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood k
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, l
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud k
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues--- l
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest m
To children ardent for some desperate glory, n
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est m
Pro patria mori.* n


*Translation: It is sweet and honorable to die for your country.