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How to Scan Vergil's Poetry

Students of poetry use scansion to determine the rhythmic style of a poem. Two or more syllables together create a foot, the smallest unit of rhythm in poetry. The Roman poet Vergil wrote in dactylic hexameter, so each line in his poems contains six feet. These six feet may be either one long syllable followed by two short syllables (a dactyl) or two long syllables (a spondee). When scanning Vergil's poetry, mark stressed (long) syllables with a slash (/) and unstressed (short) syllables with a horizontal line (--).

Instructions

    • 1

      Draw a slash above the last two syllables of the words in every line to indicate a spondee. The last foot in the line is always a spondee.

    • 2

      Draw a slash above the first syllable in every line. The first syllable of every line of dactylic hexameter is always long.

    • 3

      Search for words that end with a vowel sound. If the words following them begin with a vowel sound, then these two adjacent vowels will elide; elision occurs when two adjacent vowel sounds combine and create one syllable instead of two. Strike a line through the first of the two adjacent vowels to help you remember.

    • 4

      Scan the line for words that end in "um," "em" or "am." If the words following these endings begin with a vowel, note that these two syllables will also elide. Strike a line through the final syllable of the word ending in "-m" as a reminder.

    • 5

      Now that you've noted all possible elisions, scan the first line of poetry from left to right. Because you've marked the first syllable as long, determine whether the following syllable is short or long.

    • 6

      If the following syllable is long, mark those first two syllables as a spondee. Draw a vertical line to mark the end the first foot and move on to the next foot.

    • 7

      If the following syllable is short, mark both the following syllable and the one after it as short. This creates a dactyl. Draw another vertical line to separate the dactyl from the next foot and then move on to the next foot.

    • 8

      Repeat steps 5-7 until you reach the end of the line. Ensure that there are six feet in the line and that each foot is either a dactyl or a spondee.

    • 9

      Repeat steps 1-8 to scan more lines of Vergil.

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Poetry

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