Versification Course

Lesson 1 • Scansion Technique

Teaches the practical method of marking stress and feet in a line of verse. Accurate scansion is the diagnostic tool used throughout the course.

Lesson 2 • What Versification Studies

Defines versification as the systematic study of poetic form, sound, and rhythm. Establishes why formal analysis underpins both reading and writing poetry.

Lesson 3 • The Syllable as Building Block

Examines syllable structure, stress, and weight as the raw material of meter. Connects syllable behavior to rhythmic patterns in later chapters.

Lesson 4 • Feet and Metrical Units

Introduces the metrical foot as a grouping of stressed and unstressed syllables. Students learn to name and scan the most common feet.

Lesson 1 • Syllabic Meter

Analyzes verse organized by syllable count alone, regardless of stress. Students practice syllabic forms and understand their expressive limits.

Lesson 2 • Accentual-Syllabic Meter

Covers the dominant English metrical tradition, which counts both syllables and stresses. Students scan iambic, trochaic, dactylic, and anapestic lines.

Lesson 3 • Metrical Variation and Tension

Explores how poets deviate from a base meter for expressive effect. Students learn to distinguish meaningful variation from error.

Lesson 4 • Quantitative Meter

Introduces classical Greek and Latin meter based on vowel quantity. Students recognize hexameter and elegiac couplets and understand their influence on English.

Lesson 1 • Rhyme Position in the Line

Maps where rhyme occurs: end, internal, initial, and medial positions. Each position creates distinct sonic and rhythmic effects.

Lesson 2 • Rich, Identical, and Mosaic Rhyme

Examines advanced rhyme categories that push beyond simple sound matching. Students recognize these in texts and experiment with them in drafts.

Lesson 3 • Rhyme as Structural Device

Analyzes how rhyme organizes stanzas, signals closure, and creates expectation. Students revise drafts to use rhyme architecturally.

Lesson 4 • Rhyme Schemes and Notation

Teaches standard letter-notation for rhyme schemes and applies it to major stanza forms. Students map schemes in unfamiliar poems accurately.

Lesson 1 • Alliteration and Its Effects

Covers repetition of initial consonant sounds across stressed syllables. Students trace alliteration from Old English verse to contemporary poetry.

Lesson 2 • Consonance and Dissonance

Analyzes repeated consonant sounds in non-initial positions. Students use consonance to create texture and dissonance for tension.

Lesson 3 • Orchestrating Multiple Sound Devices

Teaches students to layer alliteration, assonance, and consonance in a single passage. Revision exercises build control over complex sound texture.

Lesson 4 • Assonance and Vowel Music

Examines repeated vowel sounds within lines and stanzas. Students learn to orchestrate vowel color for tonal and emotional effect.

Lesson 1 • Ode, Elegy, and Hymn Stanzas

Covers classical and English ode stanza types alongside elegiac and hymn meters. Students identify stanza form and its tonal implications.

Lesson 2 • Terza Rima and Ottava Rima

Examines Italian stanza forms and their English adaptations. Students trace narrative momentum created by interlocking and enclosed rhyme schemes.

Lesson 3 • The Sonnet in All Its Varieties

Covers Petrarchan, Shakespearean, and Spenserian sonnet structures. Students write one sonnet variant and analyze the volta in published examples.

Lesson 4 • The Sestina

Teaches the six-word end-word rotation system of the sestina. Students complete a full sestina draft and analyze word-choice strategy.

Lesson 1 • Visual and Spatial Form

Explores how white space, indentation, and page layout function as formal elements. Students experiment with visual arrangement to shape reading pace.

Lesson 2 • The Line Break as Expressive Tool

Examines how line endings create pause, ambiguity, and emphasis in free verse. Students revise a prose passage into free verse using deliberate line breaks.

Lesson 3 • Defining Free Verse

Clarifies what free verse is and is not, dispelling the myth that it lacks form. Students identify the organizing principles in canonical free verse poems.

Lesson 4 • Syntax and Rhythm in Free Verse

Shows how sentence structure generates rhythm when meter is absent. Students analyze anaphora, parallelism, and periodic sentences as rhythmic engines.

Lesson 1 • Figurative Language in Verse

Covers metaphor, simile, metonymy, and synecdoche as tools of compression and surprise. Students evaluate figures for freshness and logical coherence.

Lesson 2 • Compression and Economy

Teaches cutting redundancy and loading each word with maximum meaning. Students apply compression techniques to their own drafts.

Lesson 3 • Diction Levels and Register

Maps the spectrum from archaic to colloquial diction and its tonal effects. Students match diction level to form and subject deliberately.

Lesson 4 • Tone, Voice, and Persona

Analyzes how diction and syntax construct a speaker's tone and persona. Students write in a consistent voice and identify tonal shifts in published poems.

Lesson 1 • Revision Strategies for Meter

Teaches targeted techniques for fixing metrical irregularities without losing meaning. Students revise metrically flawed lines using substitution and rephrasing.

Lesson 2 • Revision Strategies for Sound

Focuses on strengthening or reducing sound patterns to serve the poem's intent. Students revise for sonic coherence and eliminate accidental jingles.

Lesson 3 • Portfolio Composition and Presentation

Covers sequencing, titling, and presenting a cohesive collection of poems. Students assemble a final portfolio demonstrating range across forms studied.

Lesson 4 • Diagnosing a Draft

Provides a systematic checklist for identifying metrical, sonic, and diction problems in a draft. Students apply the checklist to peer and self-written work.