Latin Meter and Scansion: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners

Are you reading Latin poetry? Then you need to understand Latin meter and how to scan it. Dive into the world of metrics and scansion with me!

In poetry, the meter refers to the pattern of syllables in a line of verse (or in a poem as whole). Scansion is the process of analyzing this meter. When you analyze a line according to its meter, you scan it.

Every poem has a meter. It’s your job to discover and appreciate that meter via scansion.

I remember being terrified of Latin scansion for most of my undergraduate career. But once you get the hang of it, it isn’t so bad at all.

Now I scan Latin verse effortlessly, and you can too. This post will cover all the basics of Latin meter and scansion (from feet to elision). And we will get into some not-so-basic topics, too.

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Latin Meter: Basic Principles

The first thing to note is that Latin poetry does not rhyme. In fact, Latin authors often go out of their way to avoid rhymes. What is important is the number of syllables and their length.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Meter

Latin meter is quantitative (that is, it depends on syllable quantity). Each line of Latin verse consists of a pattern of long and short syllables.

Different meters have different patterns of syllables, but syllable quantity is crucial in all of them.

This is in contrast with English meter, which is qualitative. Qualitative meter depends on syllable quality – that is, whether a syllable is stressed or unstressed.

Let’s take a look at the opening lines of William Blake’s poem The Tyger. They are in trochaic tetrameter catalectic, which is a fancy way of saying that the pattern of syllables is stressed – unstressed, stressed – unstressed, stressed – unstressed, stressed.

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright

in the forests of the night

The alternating stressed and unstressed syllables create a familiar rhythm. Latin poetry relies on similar rhythms, but syllables alternate between long and short.

Long vs. Short Syllables in Latin Poetry

What does it mean to say that a syllable is long or short? The quick answer is that a long syllable takes (roughly) twice as long to pronounce as a short syllable. 1 long syllable = 2 short syllables.

Scholars use the term mora to designate the time it takes to pronounce one short syllable. If a short syllable is equal to one mora, then a long syllable is equal to two morae. (Mora means “delay” in Latin.)

We can also express this in terms of musical annotation. A short syllable is represented by an eighth note (♪), while a long syllable is represented by a quarter note (♩).

But how, you may ask, are you supposed to know if a syllable is long or short? Good question. This post covers Latin syllabification in detail, but for now, here are a few quick rules.

A syllable is long if

• it contains a long vowel or a diphthong
• it contains a short vowel and is followed by two consonants

Long vowels (marked with macrons in dictionaries) and diphthongs (two vowels combined) take longer to say than short vowels. The combination of a short vowel and two consonants also takes longer to say.

A syllable is short if it contains a short vowel and is followed by one consonant or no consonants.

IMPORTANT: Word boundaries do not matter when you are dividing poetry into syllables. Think about it: when you speak, words emerge from your mouth as an uninterrupted stream of sounds. Consonants and vowels come together into syllables without regard for word divisions.

Now that you know about quantitative verse and syllable length, you are ready to really dive into Latin meter and scansion.

Latin Metrical Terminology

In a moment we will look at three common Latin meters. But first I need to introduce some important terminology as well as the conventions of metrical notation.

Metrical Feet & Notation

Many meters can be divided into smaller units called feet. Each foot has its own specific combination of syllables.

In metrical notation a dash (—), also called a macron, indicates a long syllable. A breve (∪) indicates a short syllable.

An anceps (X) is used when the metrical pattern accepts either a short or a long syllable.

Feet divisions are indicated with either an upright line ( | ) or a slash ( / ).

Here are some of the most common feet that you will encounter in Latin poetry.

• dactyl: — ∪∪ (long short short)
• spondee: — — (long long)
• iamb: ∪ — (short long)
• trochee: — ∪ (long short)

Different meters incorporate these feet in different ways, and some meters don’t have feet at all (more about this below).

If you remember earlier in this post, I mentioned that one long syllable equals two short syllables. Because of this, in some meters two short syllables can be replaced by a single long syllable (or vice versa). We call this process substitution.

The most important result of this is that spondees (— —) and dactyls (— ∪∪) are often interchangeable. The two short syllables at the end of the dactyl equal the one long syllable at the end of the spondee.

Caesurae & Diereses

When you read poetry out loud to yourself, you often pause at the ends of sentences or phrases. This helps to make the words more comprehensible.

Pauses also happen in Latin poetry, and we have special terminology to refer to them.

A caesura, literally a “cutting”, occurs when a word ends in the middle of a foot. There may be multiple caesurae per line, but one will be the primary caesura. This is where you pause.

A dieresis occurs when a word ends between two feet.

Take, for example, the opening line of the Aeneid. The // indicates the primary caesura.

Aeneid 1.1: Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
—  u  u  |  —   u  u  | —  //  —  |  —   —  |  —  u  u  | —   x
Ar ma vi | rum que ca | nō // Trō | iae quī | prī mu sa | bō rīs

The word arma ends in the middle of a dactyl. Arma scans as — ∪ (long short), and then the first syllable of virumque supplies the second short syllable to complete the foot. Technically, there is a caesura after arma.

There are also caesurae after virumque, canō, Trōiae, and prīmus, and in theory we could say there is a dieresis after quī. Most of these word ends are not natural stopping places, though, so a poet would not pause there.

The only natural pause in this line happens after canō. Thus the primary caesura falls in the third foot of this line.

Common Latin Meters (with examples!)

And now, the moment that you have been waiting for with baited breath: it’s time to look at examples of Latin scansion!

Remember: a meter is a pattern of long and short syllables. There are many different meters in Latin, and I have chosen three of them to discuss here.

1. Dactylic hexameter
2. Elegiac couplets
3. Hendecasyllables

I have taught all three of these meters to Latin students in intermediate or advanced classes. The first two especially are very popular, so if you learn them, you will be in good shape.

Dactylic Hexameter

Dactylic hexameter is the meter of epic poetry and as such it is usually the first meter that most students learn. If you are reading Vergil’s Aeneid or Ovid’s Metamorphoses, then you are reading dactylic hexameter.

“Hexameter” means “six feet”, and since this is dactylic hexameter, dactyls predominate.

Here is a standard dactylic line:

— ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — x

In dactylic hexameter, substitutions frequently occur in the first four feet: a dactyl can be swapped out for a spondee. The fifth foot is almost always a dactyl.

In dactylic hexameter only two feet are permissible: dactyl and spondee. We can show the variation with the following notation. ∪∪ means that ∪∪ can be replaced by —.

— ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — x

When it comes to caesuras, the primary caesura in a hexameter line usually falls within the third or fourth foot.

👉 Want to know more about this popular meter? Read my post on dactylic hexameter.

Here is an example of dactylic hexameter from Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica (book 1, lines 1-5). For each line, I have given first the regular Latin text, then the scansion, and finally a division of the line into syllables. Notice how the syllables are divided without regard for word boundaries.

Line 1: Altera lux haud laeta viris emersit Olympo:
—  u  u  |  —   —   |  —  u  // u  | —  —  |  —  u  u  |  —  x
Al te ra | lūx haud | lae ta // vi | rī sē | mer si to | lym pō 

Line 2: Argolicus morbis fatisque rapacibus Idmon
—  u  u  |  —   —  |  —  // —  |  —   u  u  | —  u  u  |  —   x
Ar go li | cus mor | bīs // fā | tīs que ra | pā ci bu | sid mōn

Line 3: labitur extremi sibi tum non inscius aevi.
—  u  u  |  —   —  | —  // u  u  |  —   —  | —   u  u |  —  x
lā bi tu | rex trē | mī // si bi | tum nōn | in sci u | sae vī

Line 4: at memor Aesonides nimium iam vera locuti
—  u  u  |  —  u  u  |  —  // u  u  | —   —  | —  u  u  | —  x
at me mo | rae so ni | dēs // ni mi | um iam | vē ra lo | cū tī

Line 5: Phineos hinc alios rapto pavet Idmone luctus
—   u  u |  —  u  u  | —  //  —  | —  u  u  |  —  u  u  |  —   x
Phi ne o | sin ca li | ōs // rap | tō pa ve | tid mo ne | lūc tūs

Incidentally, if you have never read Valerius Flaccus, I highly recommend this translation. I love the Argonautica (of course, I am biased because I am currently writing an article about these very lines).

Elegiac Couplets

Elegiac couplets are used for elegy, a term which – in ancient Rome – could encompass lyric poems on such disparate topics as love, grief, myth, etc. Famous poets who wrote in this meter include Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid.

Elegiac couplets consist of one line of dactylic hexameter plus one line of dactylic pentameter. Each hexameter + pentameter combo is referred to as a couplet.

“Pentameter” means “five feet,” but this is a bit deceptive. The pentameter line is actually 2.5 dactylic feet plus 2.5 dactylic feet. There is a break in the middle of the line.

— ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — // — ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | —

In other words, we don’t see five dactylic feet in a row, but rather 2.5 feet times 2. Notice that the first two dactyls can be replaced by spondees, but the last two cannot.

You can recognize elegiac couplets easily because every other line is indented. A couplet looks like this:

— ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — x
— ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — // — ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | —

A good example of elegiac couplets comes from Martial’s De Spectaculis, a volume of poems about the shows put on in the newly built Colosseum. Here is poem 20:

Line 1: Quod pius et supplex elephas te, Caesar, adorat
 —   u  u |  —   —  |  —   // u u  |  —   —  |  —  u  u  | —   x
Quod pi u | set sup | plex // e le | phās tē | Cae sa ra | dō rat

     Line 2: hic modo qui tauro tam metuendus erat,
     —   u  u  |  —   —  | —  //  —  u  u  | —  u  u  |  —
     hic mo do | quī tau | rō // tam me tu | en du se | rat

Line 3: non facit hoc iussus, nulloque docente magistro,
 —  u  u  |  —   —  |  —  //  —  | —   u  u  |  —  u  u  |  —   x 
nōn fa ci | toc ius | sus // nūl | lō que do | cen te ma | gis trō

     Line 4: crede mihi, nostrum sentit et ille deum.
      —  u  u  | —   —  |  —   //  —  u  u  |  —  u  u  | —
     crē de mi | hī nos | trum // sen ti te | til le de | um

Hendecasyllables

The last Latin meter to be discussed in this post is hendecasyllables. ἕνδεκα (hendeka) means “eleven” in Ancient Greek, so a hendecasyllabic meter is one that has eleven syllables per line.

There are different types of hendecasyllabic lines. In this post I will focus on Phalaecian hendecasyllables, since this is the meter that we find in frequently read Latin authors such as Catullus and Martial.

In fact, 20% of Martial’s epigrams are in Phalaecian hendecasyllables.

The basic metrical scheme is as follows.

x x — ∪ ∪ — ∪ — ∪ — —

Notice that we don’t divide hendecasyllables into feet. There is also no caesura in the line.

The pattern of longs and shorts is strict except for the first two syllables, which can be either long or short. This makes hendecasyllables very easy to scan once you memorize the rhythm.

Hendecasyllabic rhythm is less intuitive to me than dactylic hexameter or elegiac couplets, but I focus on the distinctive line end: DUM dee DUM dee DUM DUM. When I hear that, I know I am dealing with hendecasyllables.

Martial Epigrams 9.9 is a good example of Phalaecian hendecasyllables. Like many poems in this meter, this one is a humorous epigram.

Line 1: Cenes, Canthare, cum foris libenter,
—   —  —    u  u   —  u   —  u   —   —
Cē nēs Can tha re cum fo rīs li ben ter,

Line 2: clamas et maledicis et minaris.
 —  —   —  u  u  —  u   —  u  —   —
clā mā set ma le dī ci set mi nā ris.

Line 3: deponas animos truces monemus:
—  —  —  u  u   —   u   —  u  —   —
dē pō nā sa ni mōs tru cēs mo nē mus:

Line 4: liber non potes et gulosus esse.
—   —   —  u  u   —  u  —  u   —  —
lī ber nōn po te set gu lō su ses se.

Elision in Latin

There is one final topic that must be addressed in any discussion of Latin meter, and this is elision.

Elision refers to a process by which certain syllables are dropped in poetry. These syllables are either completely omitted or pronounced so quickly that they have no effect on the meter.

There are very specific instances in which elision occurs.

If a word ends in a vowel or a vowel plus m AND the following word begins with a vowel or h plus a vowel, then the final vowel (or vowel plus m) of the first word is elided.

Let’s say you have the phrase patriamque īramque. The first word, patriamque, ends in E (a vowel), while the second word, īramque, begins in I (a vowel).

As a result, the two syllables will be combined into one. The –e disappears and you pronounce the phrase patriamqu’ īramque.

The length of the resulting syllable depends on the length of the second syllable. In this case, ī– is a long syllable, since it contains a long vowel.

Here are two more examples:

• hastam intorsit -> hast’ intorsit (— — — ∪)
• trānsmissī ab -> trānsmiss’ ab (— — ∪)

Note that elision is frequently indicated by an undertie ( ‿ ) joining together two words, e.g. hastam‿intorsit. You can also simply cross out the elided syllable.

Why does elision happen? As I mentioned toward the beginning of this post, when you are reciting poetry, words form a continuous stream of sound. Adjacent vowel sounds run together and blend into each other.

Final M was likely nasalized in Classical Latin. So the -am in hastam was pronounced hastã, and consequently the M was no obstacle to elision.

Short vowels, long vowels, and diphthongs can all be elided. It is rare that elision does not occur, but if for some reason it does not, this is called hiatus.

Let’s look at a few lines from Catullus (3.1-5) that involve elisions. I have used the strikethrough function to cross out the elided syllables.

The meter is hendecasyllabic.

Line 1: Lugete, o Veneres Cupidinesque,
—  —     — u  u   —  u  —  u   —   —
lū gē te ō Ve ne rēs Cu pī di nēs que

Line 2: et quantum est hominum venustiorum:
—   —        —  u  u   —  u   —  u  —  —
et quan tum est ho mi num ve nus ti ō rum

Line 3: passer mortuus est meae puellae,
 —   —   —  u  u  —   u  —  u  —   —
pas ser mor tu u sest me ae pu el lae

Line 4: passer, deliciae meae puellae,
 —   —  —  u  u  —  u  —  u  —   —
pas ser dē li ci ae me ae pu el lae

Line 5: quem plus illa oculis suis amabat
  —   —   —     u u   —  u  — u  —  —
quem plū sil la o cu līs su ī sa mā bat

In line 1, the final e in lūgēte combines with ō. In line 2, the final um in quantum elides before est. Finally, in line 5, the a in illa disappears before the o in oculīs.

When I read Latin poetry out loud, I skip the elided syllables entirely. Thus I say lū gē tō and quan test and il lo cu līs. It looks weird in writing, but it sounds quite natural in speech.

How To Scan Latin Poetry: Tips & Tricks

As I mentioned at the very beginning of this post, scansion is all about analyzing a poem’s meter. Now that we have covered how Latin meter works and seen multiple examples, it is time to discuss Latin scansion strategies.

At first you may need to analyze each syllable individually to check if it is long or short. But over time, you will begin to hear the rhythm of each meter and you will be able to read poetry aloud automatically.

This brings me to my first tip concerning Latin scansion. Always read the Latin out loud. You need to be able to hear the meter. You can’t do that if you are simply marking down symbols on a piece of paper.

Typically, modern speakers stress long syllables in order to be able to hear the rhythm more clearly. This is totally fine, but remember that the ancient Romans would have heard the meter based on syllable quantity.

In my classes, we all bang on the table as we read poetry out loud together. Or at least, I bang, and my students look at me as if I have lost my mind.

I drum hard for long syllables and softly for short syllables. While my students may be skeptical of the banging at first, it definitely helps them to develop an ear for Latin meter.

How can you tell the meter of a Latin poem?

You always should figure out what meter a poem is before you take a stab at scanning it. This is because your approach to scanning will depend on the specific meter.

Some meters (especially lyric meters) are very fixed and you can count on the exact same syllable pattern every line (or stanza). Other meters – such as dactylic hexameter – allow for substitution. As a result, there is quite a bit of variation possible.

Here are three easy methods I use to determine the meter of a Latin poem.

1. See if any of the verses are indented. If every second line is slightly indented, you are dealing with elegiac couplets.
2. Consider the genre of the poem. For instance, if it’s epic, you can assume it is in dactylic hexameter. If it is a poem about love or grief, elegiac couplets are likely.
3. Eyeball the length of the line. At only 11 syllables, hendecasyllabic verses are shorter than dactylic hexameter lines, which can range anywhere from 13 to 17 syllables.

Of course, #3 ignores the fact that there are many other Latin meters – iambic trimeter, trochaic tetrameter, etc.

When all else fails, see if you can find a good commentary for the poem. This commentary will include metrical information. With all the terminology you have learned in this post, you should be able to understand what is happening and add a new Latin meter to your repertoire.

Tips for Scanning Latin Poetry

All right, let’s assume that you have determined your poem’s meter. When you read each line, it is your job to figure out how the syllables fit into one of the accepted patterns for that meter.

Tip #1: Start by figuring out how many syllables there are and where the syllable breaks are. Make sure that you cross out the first syllable in each elision!!! It won’t be pronounced and so it will not affect the meter.

Tip #2: Use macrons and breves to mark the lengths of any syllables which you immediately know. Advanced texts usually lack macrons, so rely on your memory of long vs. short vowels. Also remember: a syllable is long if it is followed by a double consonant.

Tip #3: Start dividing syllables into feet (if the meter has feet). Make sure the syllables fit into the patterns allowed by the specific meter. For example, in dactylic hexameter and elegiac couplets, you can only have dactyls and spondees, so short syllables only ever come in pairs. If you think you have one isolated short syllable, you have made a mistake somewhere. You have also made a mistake if you think you have three or more short syllables in a row.

Tip #4: Try to analyze the meter from the end of the line if you get stuck while working from the beginning. All three of the meters which we have covered in this post have fixed line ends, which means that you know the quantities of the last few syllables. Dactylic hexameter usually ends in — ∪∪ | — x. The pentameter line in elegiac couplets always ends in — ∪∪ | — ∪∪ | — , while hendecasyllables end in — ∪ — ∪ — —.

The photo below features an example of Latin scansion in progress (specifically, elegiac couplets from Ovid’s Amores). The first line is complete, but lines 2-4 only have syllables scanned at the end of the line.

Tip #5: Are you still stuck after working backwards? Check the end of each word and see if there is a vowel or vowel + M that can elide with the following word. (Yes, I know that Tip #1 also involves elision. But missing an elision is by far the most common mistake that my students make, so it’s always good to double or triple check.)

Tip #6: If you try all of these scansion tricks and nothing is working, it’s time to consult a good Latin dictionary. The most likely cause of your confusion is misidentification of vowel length, so look up every word in the verse (even ones you think you know) and check the natural vowel lengths.

Tip #7: Still no luck? Take a break and come back to the difficult line later. Sometimes our brains need some rest, and when we return with fresh eyes, things make more sense.

And there you go. Those are my expert strategies for scanning Latin meter. With scansion, as with most skills, practice makes perfect.

How to Check Your Latin Scansion

It is always good to have someone double check your scansion if you can. When I taught Statius and Martial at Kenyon College last year, we covered a variety of meters. One of my students always used to bring scanned lines to office hours for me to check, and you know what? This student’s knowledge of Latin meter improved so much that semester.

But what do you do if you don’t have a Latin teacher or professor to turn to? I recommend that you consult hypotactic.com, a website on Greek and Latin meter run by Dr. David Chamberlain.

Dr. Chamberlain is a classicist at the University of Oregon, and his site includes fully scanned poems by numerous Latin authors. For example, look at this page on Catullus! You can either click on a single line to see the scansion, or you can select “Scan All” in the lefthand sidebar.

Check your scansion, and once you know you have it right, read that poem out loud to yourself, over and over and over. This will help the metrical patterns to really sink into your brain.

Final Thoughts on Latin Meter & Scansion

Learning to scan Latin poetry with confidence can take a while. I know it did for me. Many aspects of language learning come naturally to me, but meter was not one of them.

But I persevered, and you should, too: it is totally worth it.

When we read the meter correctly, we are getting a taste of how the ancient Romans themselves experienced their poems. Remember: in Rome, most people heard poems instead of reading them.

That’s why my advanced Latin students always have to memorize at least 30 lines of a Latin poem and recite it with the proper meter to their classmates. We pretend that we are listening to poetry recitations in ancient Rome!

I highly recommend that you memorize Latin poems, too! It is so much fun. It will improve your understanding of the language as well as boost your familiarity with Latin meter.

Now, as I conclude this post, I want to share some resources for learning more about Latin pronunciation and meter. I rely on them constantly.

👉 W. Sidney Allen’s Vox Latina: The Pronunciation of Classical Latin is my go-to reference for Latin pronunciation. This slim but comprehensive manual has a chapter dedicated to syllable quantity and meter (Chapter 6).

👉 Next up is Allen and Greenough’s trusty Latin grammar. §607-629 and 642 cover Latin meter in great detail.

Don’t forget to check out my post on dactylic hexameter. You might also like my other posts on pronunciation and syllabification:

How to Pronounce Classical Latin

A Guide to Latin Stress & Syllables

Why You Should Memorize Latin Macrons

How to Type Macrons Easily