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Find the beat, then the break

English · Reading Comprehension · ages 16-18

Name ______________________ Date ____________

Which pattern is an iamb?
- One loud then one soft, DUM-da
- Two loud syllables, DUM-DUM
- One soft then one loud, da-DUM
What does it mean to scan a line of verse?
- To count the letters in each word, then total them for the line
- To mark which syllables are stressed and unstressed
- To rewrite the line as a plain prose sentence
Scansion depends on hearing stress, so it helps to read a line aloud, or hear it clearly in your head, while you mark it.
Circle one: True False
A line has five feet. Four run da-DUM, and the third runs DUM-da. What do you report?
- Iambic pentameter with a trochee in the third foot
- Trochaic pentameter throughout
- No metre, since any substitution removes the pattern
In the word believe, which syllable takes the stress?
- be, the first syllable
- lieve, the second syllable
- both syllables equally
In an iambic poem, one line opens with the word Never, so its first foot runs DUM-da. What should your reading do next?
- Ask what the extra weight on Never does to the sense
- Ignore the change as a slip
- Rescan the whole poem as trochaic because of this foot
One line looks trochaic, but the three lines around it run steady iambs. What is the safer call?
- Call the poem trochaic, based on that single line
- Read it as a substitution in iambic verse
- Stop scanning, since the poem has no clear metre
Your diagram marks a word soft, but every natural reading of the line stresses it. What do you report?
- The diagram wins, so read the word softly anyway
- Mark the spoken stress and report the clash
- Neither, so leave that whole line out of the scan

Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

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One soft then one loud, da-DUM · An iamb rises from an unstressed syllable to a stressed one: da-DUM.
To mark which syllables are stressed and unstressed · Scanning means marking stressed and unstressed syllables so that the beat of the line can be seen.
True · Stress is a sound. Reading aloud, or hearing the line clearly in your head, lets you hear which syllables your voice leans on.
Iambic pentameter with a trochee in the third foot · Four iambs in five feet set iambic pentameter. The single DUM-da foot is a trochaic substitution, not a new metre.
lieve, the second syllable · Said aloud, the word is be-LIEVE, so the stress falls on the second syllable, like an iamb.
Ask what the extra weight on Never does to the sense · A substitution often draws weight onto a word. Your reading should ask what that weight adds to the meaning.
Read it as a substitution in iambic verse · Scanning four lines gives a firmer basis than scanning one. Three iambic lines set the pattern, so the odd line is a substitution within it.
Mark the spoken stress and report the clash · Stress is heard, not drawn. When speech and pattern clash, read with speech and say what the clash does.