A Guide to Chaucer's Meter

Book excerpt: This book gives step-by-step lessons in the scansion of Chaucer's verse. It offers arguments in favor of foot-scansion and is therefore traditional in its treatment of the subject. Although the method of scansion is traditional, the presentation of the method does not become insistent on narrow readings. Indeed, the final chapter of the book discusses the rhythm of Chaucer's verse and points out the usefulness of rhythmic scansion. Contents: Some Basics; Rhythm and Meter in Modern English; Chaucer's Regular Iambic Pentameter Lines; The Syllables that Count; Some Basic Substitutions; Chaucer's Four-Stress Meter; Metrical Abstraction and Rhythmic Realization.