A Scansion of Sonnet 116

Directions: Read about "Scansion" on the right, try to apply the "rules" by looking at the sample on the left, then click on the audio link under line 8 to hear the lines read through your Real Player™ as you scroll through the lines. Be sure to listen more than once to see if the reading matches the scansion marked above lines 1 - 8 of the poem on the left.

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Let me not to the marriage of true minds 1

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Admit impediments. Love is not love 2

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Which alters when it alteration finds 3

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Or bends with the remover to remove. 4

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Oh, no! It is an ever fixed mark 5

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That looks on tempests and is never shaken; 6

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It is the star to every wand'ring bark, 7

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Whose worth's unknown although his height be taken. 8

Click here for a reading of the lines above.

SCANSION

Which words and syllables are most likely emphasized by the rhythm built into a poem? "Scansion" tells the answer.

Here are some "rules", probably a bit beyond what you might have encountered in a high school introduction to scansion:

1. A poet cannot wrench the normal way to say a word, so the first part of marriage has to be louder than the last part: MARRiage.

2. Words that carry meaning generally count more than function words. So nouns like minds and mark should be louder than words like to or of.