Scansion

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of analyzing a verse to determine its metrical structure or rhythm
2. A detailed examination of the patterns of stresses in a poem or song
3. The methodology used to break down the rhythm of poetic lines into their constituent parts

Etymology: The Latin verb "scandere" meant "to climb," and its noun "scansio" named the act of climbing. Scansion came to English from this Late Latin noun, and the link to poetry is a metaphor: a line of verse was pictured as a ladder, and the work of scanning it meant climbing up through its feet and stresses to see how the rhythm was built. The same root sits behind "ascend" and "descend," which both carry the sense of moving up or down a slope or stair. Scansion keeps only the climbing sense, applied to the step-by-step climb through the syllables of a line. Each stressed and unstressed syllable is a rung, and the scanner's task is to count and mark them in order.

Synonyms: meter, rhythmic analysis, versification, prosody, cadence