In order to bring the verse under this scansion he assumes that certain syllables admitted of being lengthened.
At any rate, this scansion would, in this case, be quite admissible, as indeed the other licences of even-beat rhythm all occur here.
If after what precedes any doubt were possible as to the scansion of the verses quoted on p.
In Early Middle English, however, and also in the language of Chaucer, exceptions to this rule are found, trisyllabic scansion occurring chiefly in the plur.
Lachmann himself, it must be remembered, admitted the two-beat scansion for Old Norse, Old Saxon, and Old English.
They are by no means intended to dictate a schematic scansion to the reader, as it is obvious that the finer shades of the rhythm cannot be indicated by such a mode of accentuation.
The eccentric scansion of the groups is an adornment; but as soon as the original beat has been forgotten, they cease implicitly to be eccentric.
The rule of scansion in verse is to suggest no measure but the one in hand; in prose, to suggest no measure at all.
It is an error to suppose that when the old scansion by quantity gave place to scansion by accent, the quantitative demands upon a verse became abrogated.
The final e in glutonye is preserved by the caesural pause; but the scansion of the line is more easily seen by supposing it suppressed.
A note in Bell's edition makes a difficulty of thescansion of this line.
There is false scansion in many a school grammar, but perhaps none more uncouthly false, than Churchill's pretended amendments of Johnson's.
This," says he, "is the general scansionof the poem.
The true theory of early Latin scansion is established beyond a doubt by the labours of Ritschl in regard to Plautus.
The scansion is got by grouping the syllables thus: J'ay .
The scansion shews that this false grammar came from the author.
It seems hardly necessary to enlarge upon this part of the subject; it is sufficient to say that mere counting of syllables will not explain the scansion of English poetry.
When we come to apply a similar system of scansion to Chaucer, we find that he differs from Goldsmith in FOUR important particulars.
The above sections explain most of the more difficult points in the scansion of Chaucer, and should enable the student to scan most of the lines.
There is little to be learnt from this wooden method, which amounts to little more than leaving the reader to find out the scansion for himself as he best may; for few lines really conform to it.
The student who has followed the explanation of Chaucer's scansion up to this point is now in a position to understand the whole mystery of additional syllables in other positions.
He is aware that an alternative scansion may in some cases be correct, but does not sufficiently realise that any prosodic system is but an artificiality, formed to explain, and not dictate, the infinitely variable rhythms of poetry.
Sometimes it rhymes, but more often not; the lines are of varying lengths, and to scan them is often very difficult, an alliteration taking the place of scansion in many cases.
The spelling Ferdia is the conventional one sanctioned by the usage of Ferguson, Aubrey de Vere, and others; the scansion of the word as a trisyllable is on the same authority.
Now without going into the difference between long vowels and ordinary vowels, of which latter some are long in scansion and some short, it is clear that there is no identity.
He could not remember a time, he said, when he did not rhyme, and his sister records that as a very little boy he used to walk around the table "spanning out on the smooth mahogany the scansion of verses he had composed.
The scansion suggests that Pitous-e, sad-de, are treated like French adjectives, the final e denoting the feminine gender.
The substitution of the dissyllabic indeede for Chaucer's monosyllabic be just ruins the scansion of the line; but we must not expect always to find melody in that grossly over-rated poem.
Here raduore is clearly an error for radeuore or radevore, as the scansion shews.
Besides this, the scribe often ruins the scansion of a line by omitting an essential word in it, as has already been mentioned.
I have adopted that form which the scansion requires; but the MS.
Mark the scansion of stanzas 2 and 3 of the ballad in Canto IV.
It anticipates the climax of the description, besides ruining the scansion of the line.
The best way of scansion is perhaps to read despyt-e with final e, preserved by caesura, and to pronounce Diane as Dian'.
The latter syllable of Venus comes at the caesural pause; but the scansionis best mended by omitting nygh; see footnote.
In its beautiful simplicity this song has become a folksong, Since it presents many metrical irregularities, the followingscansion may be found useful.
Like this is the scansion of Tennyson's "Break, Break, Break.
Scansion is the separation of a verse of poetry into its component feet.
Indeed, it was nothing but the general ignorance of the spelling, flexions, vocabulary, andscansion of Middle English verse, that made the controversy possible.
Dryden's preface has some admirable criticism of Chaucer, although it is evident, from what he says about the old poet's versification, that the secret of Middle English scansion and pronunciation had already been lost.
According to the scansion most in use in English, the first supplicating lyric may be classed as in pentameter iambic.
Whether this system of verse-notation or that of the usual scansion be followed, the meaning of the changing forms will be made plain.
