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A Rational Guide to Verse
or, Scansion Made Simple

Rhythm is continuous

Rhythm is continuous.  Rhythm does not stop between lines.  The rhythm of the following verse doesn't pause, break, or stumble at any point.

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water.

When you read the lines, you don't feel anything missing.  However, when you look at the feet, there's a syllable missing at the end of each line.

The problem here is that grammar and rhythm don't match up.  The first English phrase ends at "hill," which leaves rhythmic space for only one more syllable.  But the next syllable begins a new English phrase, and visually splitting a phrase can be confusing.

Jack and Jill went up the hill to
Fetch a pail of water.

Written lines often break at phrase boundaries instead of foot divisions.  Rhythm is unaffected because rhythm is continuous.  When you read these lines, you are actually reading this:

The first line is not missing a syllable.  That syllable is on the second line.  Separating the lines by rhythm instead of grammar, you can see that the feet are all equal and both lines are the same length.

Grammar and rhythm are often mismatched.  Whenever this happens, feet may be split across lines to preserve grammar.  However, because rhythm is continuous, split feet do not reduce equality.

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