TY - BOOK AU - Browning,Elizabeth Barrett AU - Meynell,Alice AU - Shorter,Clement King AU - Price,Uvedale,Sir TI - The art of scansion AV - PE PY - 2026/// CY - Salt Lake City, UT PB - Project Gutenberg KW - English language -- Versification KW - Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 1806-1861 -- Correspondence KW - Latin language -- Metrics and rhythmics KW - Greek language -- Metrics and rhythmics KW - Price, Uvedale, Sir, 1747-1829 -- Correspondence N1 - "A letter from Elizabeth Barrett, afterwards Mrs. Browning, to Uvedale Price, afterwards Sir Uvedale Price, bart."; Release date is 2026-04-21; Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.); Originally published; London: Clement Shorter, 1916 N2 - The art of scansion by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a critical letter-essay on poetic meter and classical pronunciation, written in the early 19th century. It examines how English verse should be scanned in relation to Greek and Latin prosody, addressing accent, quantity, and rhythm. The likely topic is the principles of scansion and the expressive effects of different metrical feet in both classical and English poetry. The book presents a spirited letter to Uvedale Price that contests prevailing views on pronouncing Greek and Latin and their impact on metre. Drawing on Marmontel’s distinction between dactyls and anapests, the author analyzes lines from Milton, Hesiod, Virgil, and Pope to show how rhythm conveys motion and force, and argues that English can naturally host choriambs and even pyrrhics, offering numerous examples from Milton, Byron, Shakespeare, Campbell, Anstey, and Cowper. She challenges claims about hexameter openings, cites Lucretius and Greek epic for counterexamples, and probes Latin accent rules (Donatus, Quintilian) to expose inconsistencies in strict accentual systems. Throughout, she balances technical rigor with wit—defending expressive readings, objecting to ungainly elisions, and even playfully rebuking a slight to “Will o’ the wisp”—before closing with cordial personal remarks. (This is an automatically generated summary.) UR - https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001426857 UR - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78519 ER -