Scansion
Latin poetry follows a strict rhythm based on the quantity of the vowel in
each syllable. Each line of poetry is divided into a number of feet (analogous to the
measures in music). The syllables in each foot scan as “long” or “short” according
to the parameters of the meter that the poet employs.
Dactylic Hexameter
We will focus on Dactylic Hexameter
this is the meter used by Virgil and Ovid (in his Metamorphoses)
it's the same meter used by Homer in his epic poems Odyssey and Iliad!
Dactylic hexameter: six feet of dactyls. The first four feet can be either dactyls or
spondees; the fifth foot is usually a dactyl; and the last foot scans as a spondee
whether the last syllable is short or long.
Dactyl - Long short short
Spondee - long long
Trochee - long long OR long short
The Last foot is always a Trochee
The 5th foot is almost always a Dactyl
The first foot is often a Dactyl
A vowel scans as “long” if
(1) it is long by nature (e.g., the ablative singular ending in the first declension: puellā);
(2) it is a diphthong: ae (saepe), au (laudat), ei (deinde), eu (neuter), oe (poena), ui (cui);
(3) it is long by position—these vowels are followed by double consonants (cantātae) or a consonantal i (Trōia), x (flexibus), or z.
All other vowels scan as “short.”
A few other matters often confuse beginners:
(1) qu and gu count as single consonants (sīc aquilam; linguā);
(2) h does NOT affect the quantity of a vowel (Bellus homō: Martial 1.9.1, the -us in bellus scans as short);
(3) if a mute consonant (b, c, d, g, k, q, p, t) is followed by l or r, the preceding vowel scans according to the demands of the meter, either long
(omnium patrōnus: Catullus 49.7, the -a in patrōnus scans as long to accommodate the hendecasyllabic meter) OR short (prō patriā: Horace,
Carmina 3.2.13, the first -a in patriā scans as short to accommodate the Alcaic strophe).
When two vowels elide, the first vowel drops out and does not affect the quantity of the elided syllable.
Elision in Latin occurs if:
(1) one word ends in a vowel or diphthong and the next one begins in a vowel (Lesbia, atque amēmus: Catullus 5.1);
(2) one word ends in a vowel or diphthong and the next one begins with h (atque hīc: Vergil, Aeneid 8.655); or
(3) one word ends in ‑um, ‑am, or ‑em and the next word begins in a vowel (quantum est: Catullus 3.2).
An elided syllable scans according to the quantity of the second vowel.
A hiatus (or very abrupt break in the scansion of a line) results from a failure to elide.