Scanning a Complete Passage | Latin Grammar

Scanning one isolated line proves that a pattern can be found. Scanning a passage reveals what meter does: rhythm continues while syntax crosses line endings, repeated shapes establish expectations, and departures acquire expressive force. This page works through Vergil's seven-line opening of the Aeneid (Classical literary), moving from the source text to phonology, feet, syntax, and interpretation.

The procedure is deliberately non-circular. Establish possible syllables and quantities first; only then fit dactylic hexameter. The symbols – ⏑ ⏑ and – – represent dactyls and spondees, x final anceps, apostrophes elision, and ‖ a selected principal caesura. Pedagogical macrons appear only in the analysis, not in the source quotation.

If any of those operations is unfamiliar, review Syllabification for Scansion and The Basic Scheme of Dactylic Hexameter before attempting the complete passage.

The passage before the marks

Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit
litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto
vi superum, saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram;
multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem
inferretque deos Latio; genus unde Latinum,
Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae.

“I sing of arms and the man who first, exiled by fate, came from the shores of Troy to Italy and the Lavinian coast, much buffeted on land and sea by divine power, because of fierce Juno's unforgetting anger; having suffered much also in war, until he could found a city and bring his gods to Latium—from which came the Latin race, the Alban fathers, and the walls of lofty Rome.” (Aeneid 1.1–7; source spelling retained.)

Read the sentence once for grammar before scanning it. Canō is the governing verb; arma and virum are its objects. Quī begins a relative clause whose finite verb vēnit does not arrive until line 2. Participles iactātus and passus extend the description; dum conderet ... inferretque states the goal or endpoint envisaged by destiny. The grammar runs across verses. A line end is not automatically a sentence boundary.

Canō arma virumque.

I sing of arms and the man. (prose order used only to expose the predicate)

Vir fātō profugus ad lītora vēnit.

The man, exiled by fate, came to the shores.

Pass 1: mark certain phonology

Before feet, mark ordinary diphthongs, long endings, closed syllables, and the contacts that alter the sound stream. Three operations are crucial here:

multum ille loses final -um, and ille et loses final -e in line 3;
quoque et in line 5 and atque altae in line 7 undergo elision;
the second i of Laviniaque is consonantal in line 2, giving Lā-vīn-ya-que.

Initial I in Iunonis is consonantal too. Consequently memorem does not elide before it: the sequence begins /...rem ju.../, not a vowel contact. Likewise, written word spaces do not prevent position. Final consonants join following consonants, while before a vowel a final consonant can resyllabify into the next onset.

Multum ille in versū mult' ille sonat.

In the verse, multum ille sounds as mult' ille. (academic notation)

Iūnō consonantī i incipit.

Iūnō begins with consonantal i. (academic)

💡

Write a provisional sound stream without foot bars. If the only reason for an elision or consonantal glide is “otherwise the line fails,” check the lexicon and poetic usage before accepting it.

Pass 2: scan all seven lines

The following divisions show metrical feet, not word divisions. A foot can begin in the middle of a word and end in the next. The pattern letters summarize the first four feet; the fifth is dactylic and the sixth is – x throughout this passage.

Line 1 — DDSS

Ar-ma-vi | rum-que-ca | nō ‖ Trō | iae-quī | prī-mus-ab | ō-rīs
– ⏑ ⏑ | – ⏑ ⏑ | – – | – – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – x

The two initial dactyls propel the announcement arma virumque cano. Two central spondees broaden Troiae qui. The principal caesura falls after canō, inside foot 3: the grammatical announcement closes while the metrical foot continues.

Line 2 — DSDS

Ī-ta-li | am-fā | tō ‖ pro-fu | gus-Lā | vī-nya-que | vē-nit
– ⏑ ⏑ | – – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – x

The opening I- of Italiam, normally short, exceptionally occupies a long metrical position (poetic lengthening); it must not be learned as a new lexical quantity. The principal caesura selected here follows fātō within foot 3. The fifth foot depends on consonantal i: vī-nya-que. The tempting four-syllable sequence vī-ni-a-que would not fit – ⏑ ⏑. This is a phonologically licensed poetic realization, not suppression of a written vowel by fiat.

Line 3 — DSSS

Lī-to-ra | mult-ill | et ‖ ter | rīs-iac | tā-tu-set | al-tō
– ⏑ ⏑ | – – | – – | – – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – x

The notation mult-ill | et-ter incorporates two elisions: mult(um) ill(e) et. Three successive spondees slow the line while Aeneas is “buffeted” over land and deep sea. The marker after et is a masculine caesura in foot 3; the additional word end after terrīs supplies another strong internal articulation in foot 4. In foot 5, final s of iactātus and final t of et pass forward before vowels, leaving the short syllables needed after long tā-.

Line 4 — DSDS

Vī-su-pe | rum-sae | vae ‖ me-mo | rem-Iū | nō-nis-ob | ī-ram
– ⏑ ⏑ | – – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – x

The shortened genitive plural superum helps form the opening dactyl. Diphthongal syllables in saevae are heavy, and the selected principal caesura follows that adjective inside foot 3. Because Iunonis begins with /j/, -rem remains audible and heavy before that consonant. The interlocking phrase saevae memorem Iunonis ... iram is shaped across feet rather than word by word.

Line 5 — DSSS

Mul-ta-quo | qu'et-bel | lō ‖ pas | sus-dum | con-de-ret | ur-bem
– ⏑ ⏑ | – – | – – | – – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – x

In quoqu(e) et, final e is elided. The heavy run through bellō passus dum again gives resistance and gravity; the principal caesura follows bellō inside foot 3. The word end after dum coincides with the boundary after foot 4—a bucolic diaeresis, not a caesura—and helps turn from suffering toward the destined foundation. The fifth-foot dactyl then releases that weight in conderet.

Line 6 — SDDD

In-fer | ret-que-de | ōs-La-ti | ō ‖ ge-nu | sun-de-La | tī-num
– – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – ⏑ ⏑ | – ⏑ ⏑ | – ⏑ ⏑ | – x

After one opening spondee, four dactyls carry the action and its consequences forward. In Latiō genus unde, final ō is long, while final s of genus passes forward before unde: the connected division is ō-ge-nu | sun-de-La. Thus ge-nu supplies the two lights of foot 4, and sun-—closed by n before d—opens foot 5 as heavy. The caesura after Latiō marks the turn from Aeneas's task to what originates from it.

Line 7 — SDSS

Al-bā | nī-que-pa | trēs ‖ at | qu'al-tae | moe-ni-a | Rō-mae
– – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – – | – – | – ⏑ ⏑ | – x

The principal caesura follows patrēs inside foot 3. Final -e in atque then elides before altae. Moenia divides moe-ni-a: diphthongal moe- is heavy, followed by two light open syllables. The line closes with Rōmae, two heavy syllables in the sixth foot. The one-sentence proem has moved from Troy at the end of line 1 to Rome at the end of line 7.

One line audited syllable by syllable

Line 6 is useful because its surface gives no obvious string of four dactyls:

Segment	Quantity	Reason
in	–	short vowel in a syllable closed by n before f
fer	–	closed before the following r of inferret
ret	–	closed before qu /kʷ/
que-de	⏑ ⏑	two short open syllables
ōs	–	long vowel plus final consonant
La-ti	⏑ ⏑	two short open syllables
ō	–	long dative ending in Latiō
ge-nu	⏑ ⏑	two short open syllables; final s passes forward to vowel-initial unde
sun	–	the resyllabified s is the onset, while n closes the syllable before d
de-La	⏑ ⏑	short open syllables
tī	–	long vowel in Latīnum
num	x	verse-final anceps

If genus were scanned mechanically as a closed final syllable because it ends in printed s, foot 4 would become – ⏑ – and fail. Across the word boundary, however, /s/ begins the following vowel-initial syllable. Latin phonology gives the correct dactyl without changing a lexical vowel.

Fīnis verbī mūrum inter sonōs nōn facit.

A word ending does not make a wall between sounds. (academic)

💡

Audit every surprising light syllable across the following word boundary. Final consonants before vowels often resyllabify; final vowels before vowels often elide. Those are opposite operations.

Read the pattern as composition

The foot patterns are DDSS / DSDS / DSSS / DSDS / DSSS / SDDD / SDSS. Lines 3 and 5, both centered on suffering, have three spondees among their first four feet. Line 6, turning toward the gods' arrival and the Latin future, opens with a spondee and then runs through dactyls. This does not prove a simplistic code in which “spondee means sadness” and “dactyl means speed.” It shows a local contrast between weight and release supported by syntax and meaning.

Caesurae also shape interpretation. Vergil does not pause after every foot. The selected internal breaks above fall after canō, fātō, et, saevae, bellō, Latiō, and patrēs; some lines offer additional caesurae, while the break after dum in line 5 is a fourth-foot diaeresis. The line endings meanwhile sustain suspense: line 1's ab oris waits for Italiam; line 2's venit waits for litora in line 3.

Sēnsus per fīnem versūs saepe pergere potest.

The sense can often continue across the end of a verse. (academic)

Pondus rhythmi cum sēnsū comparandum est.

Rhythmic weight must be compared with the meaning. (academic)

Common Mistakes

1. Scanning stress instead of quantity

❌ Itáliam: tā = – propter accentum.

Incorrect—the stressed syllable ta remains light; stress does not create metrical weight.

✅ Ī-ta-li-am: I- breve hīc locum longum poeticē occupat.

Correct—the normally short initial I- exceptionally occupies a long position here. (academic)

2. Keeping each printed word sealed

❌ genus | unde: nus semper gravis est.

Incorrect—final s resyllabifies before vowel-initial unde.

✅ ge-nu-sun-de: ge and nu fill the two light positions.

Correct connected analysis; spelling remains unchanged.

3. Treating any two consonant letters alike

❌ que semper syllabam praecedentem positione gravem facit.

Incorrect—qu is one labialized consonant, not an automatic two-consonant cluster.

✅ In inferretque, ret clauditur ante /kʷ/; qu tamen ūnum sonum significat.

Correct: ret is closed before /kʷ/, while qu itself represents one sound. (academic)

4. Forcing every line into the same rhythm

❌ Omnēs quattuor pedēs prīmī dactylī esse dēbent.

Incorrect—the first four feet may be dactyls or spondees.

✅ Quisque versus suam seriem dactylōrum spondeōrumque habet.

Each line has its own sequence of dactyls and spondees. (academic)

Key Takeaways

A complete scansion moves through four layers: continuous phonology, syllable weight, metrical positions, and syntax. Only then should rhythm be interpreted. Vergil's opening is not prose forced into six boxes: elision, consonantal i, inflection, word order, caesura, and lineation cooperate to carry one long sentence from arma and Troy to the walls of Rome.

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