The mark for a stressed syllable is a slash (“/”) and the mark for an unstressed syllable is a dash (“-”). The most common method of scanning a poem is to place marks above the syllables to indicate whether they are stressed or unstressed. The process of marking the stressed and unstressed syllables in a poem is called “scanning.” Scanning Poetry Wouldn’t it be better if could make marks to show the stressed and unstressed syllables? Indeed, there is such a system that is commonly used, and it’s called “scansion” (pronounced “scan-shun”). Also, if you have a poem that is already printed on paper, you wouldn’t want to have to rewrite the entire thing just to show the rhythm. The trouble with using this method is that it is awkward to write or type this way, and it makes the poem more difficult to read. To make it easy to spot the stressed and unstressed syllables in the examples I gave, I wrote them in UPPERCASE and lowercase letters, like this:
Having rhythms in your poems make them more fun to recite and easier to remember.
Knowing this, you can create patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables in your writing to create a rhythm in the words. As I explained in Rhythm in Poetry – The Basics, some syllables in English are “ stressed” – pronounced louder or with more emphasis than others – while other syllables are “unstressed,” meaning they are not emphasized.
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