What Is the Purpose of Scansion? Understanding the structure of the poetic form allows a reader to understand a poem on a deeper level. This analysis of verse, or prosody, also allows a reader to: Determine the meter of a poem by dividing a line into feet and noting the syllabic pattern of each foot.

What is the purpose of a scansion?

The purpose of scansion is to enhance the reader's sensitivity to the ways in which rhythmic elements in a poem convey meaning. Deviations in a poem's metrical pattern are often significant to its meaning. There are three major types of English scansion: the graphic, the musical, and the acoustic.

What is scansion in music?

Scansion (/ˈskæn.ʃən/ SKAN-shən, rhymes with mansion; verb: to scan), or a system of scansion, is the method or practice of determining and (usually) graphically representing the metrical pattern of a line of verse. In classical poetry, these patterns are quantitative based on the different lengths of each syllable.