Scansion is a classroom method for studying how rhythm works in verse. Students usually mark unstressed and stressed syllables, divide lines into metrical feet, and name patterns such as iambic pentameter or trochaic tetrameter. The practice helps readers hear choices that may be obscured on the page, including substitutions, caesuras, and irregular line endings. In literary study, scansion connects technical form to meaning, showing how a disrupted rhythm can emphasize emotion, conflict, speed, or hesitation.

Mark stresses and unstresses aloud, then group them into feet such as iambs or trochees. Scansion reveals a poem’s expected rhythm and meaningful variations.