Scansion of Latin Poetry

Latin, like may other classical languages, uses quantitative meter for its verse. This means that unlike English, where the accent of a given syllable determines its value in verse, a Latin syllable's value is determined by the length of time it takes to say it.

The Rules of Syllable Quantity in Latin

1. A vowel that is long, i.e. marked with a macron (a circumflex on these pages:â) makes its syllable long. It is then called "long by nature."
   • This also includes the diphthongs æ, au, ei, eu, oe, and ui, but only when none of the vowels in the dipthongs are long or marked by a dieresis (e.g. diêî or âëreus.)
2. If a vowel has two or more consonants between itself and the next vowel, it makes its syllable "long by position."
   • The letter x (and sometimes z) counts as two consonants for the purposes of scansion.
   • The digraphs (two-letter combinations) ch, ph, th, qu and sometimes gu and su count as single consonants.
   • A mute (b,c,d,g,p, or t) followed by a liquid (l or r) can count as a single consonant, as long as they are in the same word.
3. If two words are on the same poetic line, and the first ends with a vowel or m, and the second begins with a vowel or h, the last syllable of the first word and the first syllable of the second word elide, forming a single consonant, which has the value of the longer of the two syllables. This syllable is pronounced either as a combination of the two syllables, or, by individual choice, as the second syllable. If the second word is est, "is," the syllable is pronounced as the first syllable with "-st" added to the end.

Dactyl

Dactyls are a very common foot in Latin poetry. A dactyl consists of a long syllable followed by two short syllables, though the two short syllables may often be replaced by one long one, making the foot a spondee. When a dactyl may be replaced by a spondee, I will note it as /IB/. When it must be a true dactyl, I will note it as /I3/.

Spondee

A spondee is a long syllable followed by another long syllable, except that at the end of a line, any syllable can be long or short. So at most times, a spondee is /II/, but at the end of a line it is /ID/.

Dactylic Hexameter

Although the name means "six feet of dactyls", this line is actually formed by four dactyls that can become spondees, a dactyl that must remain a dactyl, and a spondee that can have its final syllable shortened, like so:
/IB/IB/IB/IB/I3/ID.
To give an example, here is the first line of Virgil's Aeneid, with long syllables in strong characters:
Arma virumque canô, Trôiae quî prîmus ab ôrîs
Which is scanned as: /I3/I3/II/II/I3/II/.
In contrast, my own poem "Hora Diei Primula" starts:
Hôra diêî prîmula vixdum frîgida luxit
Which is scanned as: /I3/II/I3/II/I3/Ic/.