![scansion of sonnet 18 scansion of sonnet 18](https://image.slideserve.com/1389638/scansion-l.jpg)
One of the myths surrounding Shakespeare’s writing is that everything he wrote was in perfect iambic pentameter, especially the sonnets (this particular form is named for him, after all), but does it really work? Based on my own reading of the poem out loud to myself, without paying attention to what the scansion should be, this is how I scanned it: To help clarify my point, I’ll scan Shakespeare’s Sonnet XVIII, which is one of his most famous. So, for example, if you’re writing a metered line and you’re reading the word “desire” as “ desire” just to make it fit, then you’re forcing the scansion instead of letting it work naturally. If you place the stress on the wrong syllables to make the lines scan, then it’s not working. What I mean is that an iamb is a heartbeat - ba-DUM - and there are many words and phrases that are iambic (oddly enough, the word “iamb” is not one of them - it’s a trochee), and when scanning a line of poetry, the natural rise and fall of the syllables is what counts. (I suppose we have to give the word “amazing” a limited definition in this context.) But I have found since then that when I read metrical writing, I scan things in my head, and if I were to be a stickler, I’d say that there are an awful lot of poems out there that, in terms of scansion, aren’t true sonnets. It was surprisingly difficult, mainly because it’s amazing how often we try to force words to scan the way we think they ought to, instead of using words that fit naturally within the flow. It was a pass/fail assignment - it either was 14 lines of iambic pentameter or it wasn’t. Like many good English majors, I had to study forms of poetic meter in school, and the most telling exercise (I still think about it) was having to write a perfect Elizabethan sonnet.
![scansion of sonnet 18 scansion of sonnet 18](https://theendofthepoem.weebly.com/uploads/8/5/1/8/8518073/fbfv_shakespeare_sonnet_29.jpg)
(What can I say? It was a nice break from the usual posting about truly important things like underwear and cramps.) I don’t claim to be an expert on this subject by any stretch of the imagination, even though many long years ago, I wrote an article for LitKicks about villanelles, sonnets and meter, (appropriately titled “Villanelles, Sonnets and Meter”) but it is something that fascinates me. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post on my blog about metrical poetry, specifically, the line in Romeo and Juliet, “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” and how the scansion of the line could support the meaning of the words.