That means my pattern, my meter, is not as consistent. You can see thereвЂ™s more variation in this scanning than in the previous one. But Carlos is naturally pronounced CARlos, not CarLOS.

The problem in this line is the emphasis on LOS. In Spanish, el baГ±o has the emphasis on BAN, not on EL. See how almost all of the вЂњfeetвЂќ or rhythmic sets are вЂ“/ ? Two unstressed syllables and then one stressed one? So itвЂ™s fine. I HANG out and CHAT with mi aMIgo, CarLOS To maintain my meter, I was counting on the all caps syllables being stressed, and thatвЂ™s how I read it out loud. I hang out and chat with mi amigo, Carlos I had this poem about a Spanish class party, and the poem had sprinkled Spanish words throughout. When youвЂ™re finished, copy the stress marks over without the words so that you can examine the pattern. Or you could even try reading the lines in random order. Work your way up the poem, one line at a time. Then mark those stressed syllables with a / over them. Read it as if itвЂ™s just part of a conversation, with the natural stresses it would have. Look at your last line, and read it aloud as if you are reading a note someone jotted down. Instead, try reading your poem one line at a time, starting with the last line.

This is where you mark all the accented and unaccented beats to see the pattern (hopefully) that youвЂ™ve created.Д«ut hereвЂ™s the secret! DonвЂ™t read your poem from top to bottom, because then youвЂ™ll still give it the rhythm you know it should have, rather than the rhythm it naturally does have. One thing that can help is to scan your poem. This, of course, gets me into big trouble, because when someone who doesnвЂ™t know the intended rhythm reads it, the tongue trips over the awkward spots, and the poem is ruined.Д«ut before I can fix that problem, I have to identify exactly where the problem is. And we might not see it happening.Д«ecause IвЂ™m a good oral reader, I can take verse that doesnвЂ™t have perfect meter and read it as if it does. Rhyming poems are really difficult to write, because in our efforts to get the rhyme just right, we often mess up the rhythm or meter of our poem. But then you show it to your critique group or peer editors, and they say the rhythmвЂ™s off, that somethingвЂ™s not working. YouвЂ™ve written your rhyming poem, and every rhyme is perfect.

Scansion marks