Mr. Lutz
Scansion
Scansion Practice
Part I: For the following selected verses, perform a scansion, noting the feet with breves, ictuses and foot breaks. Also, note the meter for each line.
And then I’ll go down to the Wilds of Nantucket
And capture a family of Lunks in a bucket.
Then people will say, “Now I like that boy heaps.
His New Zoo, McGrew Zoo, is growing by leaps.
He captures them wild and he captures them meek,
He captures them slim and he captures them sleek.
What do you suppose he will capture next week?”
If I Ran the Zoo – Dr. Seuss
I do not like them,
Sam-I-am.
I do not like
green eggs and ham.
Green Eggs and Ham – Dr. Seuss
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Sonnet 18 - William Shakespeare
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE; -
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
She was a child and I was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love –
I and my Annabel Lee –
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
From Annabel Lee - E.A. Poe
Silver bark of beech, and sallow
Bark of yellow birch and yellow
Twig of willow.
Stripe of green in moosewood maple,
Color seen in leaf of apple,
Bark of popple.
Wood of popple pale as moonbeam,
Wood of oak for yoke and barn-beam,
Wood of hornbeam.
Silver bark of beech, and hollow
Stem of elder, tall and yellow
Twig of willow.
Counting-out Rhyme - Edna St. Vincent Millay
The sea-wash never ends.
The sea-wash repeats, repeats.
Only old songs? Is that all the sea knows?
Only the old strong songs?
Is that all?
The sea-wash repeats, repeats.
Sea-wash – Carl Sandburg
I always like summer
best
you can eat fresh corn
from daddy’s garden
and okra
and greens
and cabbage
and lots of
barbecue
and buttermilk
and homemade ice-cream
at the church picnic
and listen to
gospel music
outside
at the church
homecoming
and go to the mountains with
your grandmother
and go barefooted
and be warm
all the time
not only when you go to bed
and sleep
Knoxville, Tennessee – Nikki Giovanni
Back through clouds
Back through clearing
Back through distance
Back through silence
Back through groves
Back through garlands
Back by rivers
Back below mountains
Back through lightning
Back through cities
Back through stars
Back through hours
Back through plains
Back through flowers
Back through birds
Back through rain
Back through smoke
Back through noon
Back along love
Back through midnight
Train Tune – Louise Bogan
Part II: Choose one of the poems above and address how meter and rhythm affect the overall meaning of the poem.