Short scansion

Each week, you will be assigned one short essay, in addition to your longer essay. This will be due at the end of the week, but you will want to balance out your work so that you aren’t rushing through these essays on Friday night! 

This week, I want you to perform scansion on one of the poems you have selected from the group assigned. It should be a shorter poem – even more than 15-16 lines might end up being a lot for this particular writing prompt. After you select your poem, watch (and maybe rewatch) the video lecture I’m posting on scansion and how to do it. 

The basic idea is that you will use careful analysis of how the poem is constructed in order to analyze it – you will consider rhyme scheme, rhythm, line composition, even appearance, and try to determine the ways in which it makes the meaning of the poem clearer (or less clear!). In many ways, scansion is the form of close reading most appropriate to poetry, as it forces both an intense formal and content-driven analysis. It’s not the easiest thing, and it won’t work for every poem, but it’s a good tool for you to have! 

As this is a shorter paper, you are welcome to have more aphoristic ideas – they don’t need to be fully worked out, and your “thesis” won’t be very nailed down. But that said, you should make an attempt at a full and cogent reading based on the formal material you’re given by the poet. I think these should be interesting, and as long as you make a coherent and focused effort over your 1-2 pages, you should absolutely excel. Let me know if you have any questions! 

If you’d like a more thoroughgoing account of scansion and you’re feeling ambitious or confused, check out this link from the Purdue Online Writing Lab:  https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/creative_writing/pattern_and_variation_aural/meter_and_scansion.html