scansion

American  

[skan-shuhn] / ˈskæn ʃən /

noun

Prosody.

1. the metrical analysis of verse. The usual marks for scansion are ˘ for a short or unaccented syllable, ¯ or ′ for a long or accented syllable, ^ for a rest, | for a foot division, and ‖ for a caesura or pause.

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scansion British  

/ ˈskænʃən /

noun

1. the analysis of the metrical structure of verse See quantity stress

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Etymology

Origin of scansion

1645–55; < Late Latin scānsiōn- (stem of scānsiō ), Latin: a climbing, equivalent to scāns ( us ) (past participle of scandere to climb) + -iōn- -ion

Example Sentences

Clarity for lyricists has to refer not just to scansion and word choice, but also how their songs are communicated.

From Washington Post • Jul. 29, 2022

There’s something about Shakespeare and the language that, as a Black performer, I naturally get: the rhythms, the scansion, the iambic pentameter.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 12, 2022

The effort is evident in Purple Mountains’ dense internal rhymes and honed, precise scansion.

From Slate • Jul. 11, 2019

The poems in the collection, displaying fairly conventional scansion and suffused with mythic references from Classical tradition, ancient sagas and oral verse, typify Mr. Merwin’s early style.

From New York Times • Mar. 15, 2019

Like this is the scansion of Tennyson’s “Break, Break, Break.”

From English: Composition and Literature by Webster, W. F. (William Franklin)