Byron Society Technical Page

Everybody knows what rhyme means, but I am always amazed at how little people know about scansion, even those who should know better. This is just as important as rhyme. So if you are one of these then listen up: you might learn something.

Scansion or metre means the rhythm formed by the syllables in a line of poetry. The verb to scan in this context means working out what the metre is (often a fruitless exercise in the case of Byron Society poetry). Traditionally, English poetry consists of metrical verse, which means that the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables is regular. Looser forms are (i) accentual verse, where the number of stressed syllables per line is regular; (ii) syllabic verse where the number of syllables, stressed or not, is regular and (iii) free verse or vers libre where there is no definite scansion. Here we consider only metrical verse.

The unit of metre is the foot or measure.

Types of feet:

• An iamb or iambus: US.
• An anapest: UUS.
• A dactyl: SUU.
• A spondee: SS.
• A pyrrhic: UU.
• A trochee: SU.
• An amphybrach: USU.
• A tribrach: UUU.
• A choriambus: SUUS.

Common foot groupings in metrical verse:

• Tetrameter: each line consists of four feet. Most commonly iambic tetrameter; four iambs per line, e.g. Byron's The Giaour :

  Who THUN-d'ring COMES on BLACK-est STEED?

  Anapestic tetrameter, four anapests per line, e.g. Byron's The Destruction of Sennacherib:

  The-a-SSYR-ian came DOWN like the WOLF on the FOLD

• Pentameter: each line consists of five feet. Most commonly iambic pentameter; five iambs per line, e.g. Shelley's Adonais :

  He HAS out-SOARED the SHAD-ow OF our NIGHT

  Iambic pentameter is the dominant verse form in the English language. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is known as blank verse. Shakespeare's plays, Milton's Paradise Lost, Wordsworth's Prelude and Tennyson's Idylls of the King are all written in blank verse.
  

• Hexameter: each line consists of six feet. A line in iambic hexameter, or having twelve syllables is known as an alexandrine, apparently because some French author wrote a poem about Alexander the Great using this metre. The second line of this couplet by Pope is an alexandrine:
  
  A needless Alexandrine ends the song,
  That, LIKE a WOUN-ded SNAKE, drags ITS slow LENGTH a-LONG.
  

Special types of stanza:

• Couplets: rhymed consecutive pairs of lines. Called closed if the sentence ends on the second line; called heroic if they are in iambic pentameter.
• Terza rima: alternating groups of three lines, with rhymes aba bcb cdc, etc., normally iambic pentameter. Used by Dante in The Divine Comedy.
• Quatrains: four line stanzas. Ballad form means iambic verse with the the second and fourth lines rhyming. These have three feet, whereas the first and third lines have four feet. An example of this is Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner (which can also be viewed as couplets in iambic heptameter). Envelope form means quatrains in iambic tetrameter with a rhyme scheme abba. Elegiac stanzas or heroic quatrains means iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme abab .
• Ottava rima: eight lines of iambic pentameter, with rhymes abababcc. This is the verse form of Don Juan and The Vision of Judgement.
• Spenserian stanzas: eight lines of iambic pentameter followed by an alexandrine, with rhymes ababbcbcc. So named because this was the verse form of Spenser's The Faerie Queen. Also used by Byron in Childe Harold's Pilgrimage.
• Haiku: a Japanese verse form consisting of unrhymed syllabic triplets of five, seven and five syllables.

Yes, but does the Byron Society pay any attention to any of this?

Heroic couplets:

• A Birthday Poem for Lord Stevey by Chris Oakley; A hymn on Hoey's naissance day.
• English Grads and (other) Raunch Purveyors by Chris Oakley; Satire on Byron Society creative work.
• (sort of) Carib Thoughts from Northern Shores by Danny Henrey; An account of Lord Henrey's visit to Martinique.
• Ode on the occasion of Lord Steven's 30th anniversaire by Danny Henrey; A brief, and not unflattering account of Steve Hoey's life so far.
• Raymondus Oxoniensis by Danny Henrey; A largely apocryphal account of Raymond Paretzky's Oxford career.
• The Ides of March by Chris Oakley; A birthday tribute to the overlord.
• The Newstead Games by Danny Henrey; An account of games at Newstead Abbey, hosted by Lord Byron.
• The Night Visitor by Danny Henrey; Lord Byron visits to express his approval of the few Byronists who bothered to turn up to the weekend in Castle Combe.
• Trinity Bards and Oxford Reviewers by Richard Schulze; A lament for the lack of virginal purity amongst Byron Society lags.

• Pachyderm Passion by Steve Hoey; Mrs. Jewel's secret is out.
• The Goer by Chris Oakley; A biographical piece about Mad Jack Schulze.
• To His Blank Laptop, by Danny Henrey

Treacle by Danny Henrey; Doggerel attributed to Shelley.

• To Burgundy by Danny Henrey; A hymn to Bacchus.

• To Evening by Danny Henrey; A charming (if somewhat abusive) idyll, based on Matthew Arnold.

• The Rime of the Ancient College Scout by Danny Henrey; A college servant recollects.
• The Rime of the Ancient Reggae Man by Chris Oakley; An account of a sailing trip in the Carribean in December 2000.
• The Rime of the Ancient Sheep Molester by Danny Henrey; A somewhat exaggerated account of a sailing weekend in July 1987.
• The Rime of the Moderne Musick Master by Danny Henrey; A somewhat souped-up description of Steve Hoey's visit to play at a wedding in Scotland while studying composition at California Institute of Arts.
• The Waltz for Harp and Spoon, by Chris Oakley; Steve discovers an admirer in a windsurfing instructor.
  

Spenserian Stanzas:

• Childe Danny's Pilgrimage by Raymond Paretzky; An account of the Trinity M.C.R. rowing eight in Trinity term, 1985.
• Childe Danny's Pilgrimage (Part 2) by Raymond Paretzky; a continuation of the Danny saga. Presented at his wedding in 2001.
• Childe Harold's Further Pilgrimage by Chris Oakley; An account of a visit to the U.S. with the Shamen in June 1991.
• They Walk in Bethesda, by Raymond Paretzky

Haiku:

• Haikus by Danny Henrey. Various musings.

Couplets in iambic decameter:

• Zelda in Zürich, by Raymond Paretzky; a poetry-loving zebra seeks enlightenment from the overlord. No, really.

Unclassified but metrical form:

• At Chippers Did They Revel by Steve Hoey; Some seedy goings-on at Chipping Campden.