Scanning poetry

I. Syllabification – there are as many syllables in a Latin word as there are

vowels or diphthongs:

A. the vowels are A, E, I, O, U and Y…and you may just ignore H.

B. the diphthongs are AE, EU, EI, OE, AU, and UI. (n.b….these combinations are not necessarily always diphthongs…you must know how to pronounce the words! e.g. in the gen. s. of res, ‘rei’ has two syllables, so this ei is NOT a diphthong, and ui not a diphthong in the word timui). C. split a word into syllables so that each consonant physically sits with the vowel that follows it: prae/mi/um a/pe/ri/o

ca/nis fra/ter ra/ti/o/nis The consonants will influence the strength of the vowels that precede them! (They’re married to the vowels that follow them…they’re having an affair with the vowels that precede them.) (***but it a word has a PREFIX, keep it intact: ab-est, not a-best)

D.split between two consonants: nun/ti/um can/ta/re*BUT…a mute and a liquid should stand together – the liquid letters are L and R

and will always be the second letter in the pair that makes a single consonant sound: a/gri/co/la de/cla/ma/ti/o ap/pro/pin/qua/bat ( * watch for further notes on the mute/liquid letters).

II. Quantity of syllables:

A. A syllable is long if it is “long by nature” (i.e. the dictionary shows a

macron on the vowel…I’ll mark macrons by underlining the vowels where they are actually “long by nature”.)

B. A syllable is long if it is followed by two consonants (this includes the consonants that begin successive

words)…the consonants X and Z, and J, when it is surrounded by vowels, are considered double consonants. C. Diphthongs are always long.

D. Everything else is short.

E. *The neat thing about mute/liquid consonants is that the syllables they follow may be either long or short…so

you want to recognize them: hence, the initial a- in agricola could be marked either long or short, whichever is needed to keep the rhythm moving properly through the line of poetry.

III. Dactylic hexameter is the meter used by Ovid in the Metamorphoses (and by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey)…only

dactyls and spondees are used.A. A dactyl is a finger…one long bone

and two short bones – a dactylic foot is marked – u u over the vowels.

B. A spondee is the two drops of wine

poured out as an offering: a spondaic foot is marked – –.

C. Hexameter means there are six feet to each line of poetry.

D. The first four feet can be either dactyls or spondees (count the consonants to see what’s long and what’s short).

F. The FIFTH foot is nearly always a DACTYL.

G.The SIXTH foot is always a spondee,

with a syllaba anceps for the final syllable, marked u.

_ u u / _ u u / _ u u / _ u u /_ u u / _ u or _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ _ / _ u u / _ u

or any combination thereof up to the fifth foot. _ _ /_ u u /_ u u/_ u u /_ u u / _ uUrbs an/tiqua fu/it (Tyri/i tenu/ere co/loni)

n.b. – the first syllable of every foot is always long, so if there aren’t two consonants following a vowel, and it’s the first syllable of a foot, you will find a macron on that vowel in the dictionary (assuming you’re scanning correctly through the line).When you have problems with a line, start at the end, with the final spondee, get the fifth foot established as a dactyl, and you will

probably at least be able to pinpoint where the problem lies.

qu (qui, quattuor) and gu (sanguis)…the u isconsidered part of the consonant Q and G, and is NOT marked as a separate syllable.

IV. Elision: when a word ends in a vowel or a vowel + m and the next word begins with a vowel or an h + a vowel,

you should draw a curved line under them to show elision. The vowel sound at the end of the first word is then ignored, and the initial vowel sound of the second word gets marked with the beat: aurum hora could then be pronounced aur-ora…hora aurum would sound like hor-aurum. Though you may just discard the final sound of the first word, it may also glide

through with a tiny sound in recognition of its existence…for those of you who are musically inclined, the syllable at the end of the first word may then be considered something of a grace note.

arma inlata terram hostium

currum astra vestra hospes

(From time to time, there will be instances wherein following the rules of elision will actually ruin the

line…there will usually be some serious punctuation between the words that one might want to elide, BUT

both the rhythm and the meaning will demand that you NOT elide…this is called hiatus…not a very common event, but it does occur…)