I would really appreciate if someone could help this non-literature mother understand the Teacher's Appendix B. On page 2 under the answers for "Meter" it says that "an anapest is substituted for an iamb in lines 6 and 7." It would seem to me that according to the scansion shown that a trochee is substituted for the iamb in lines 6 and 12. I would love if someone could clarify this for me!

I also don't understand the examples of elisions listed in the last paragraph of the answers. I would think the "fluttering" is an example of elision in line 6. Is it? Line 9 only has 8 syllables so how can it contain an elision? Line 13 and 14 also seem to contain only 8 syllables but the answer key lists these lines as having an elision.

Thanks in advance,
Kim
Mom to 10 great kids,
ages 16,14,13,12,10,8,6,4,2,2 weeks

Hi Kim! The anapest is, I think, a typo. Sorry about that. :-/ You're right, it should say trochee.

As for the elision marks, I will double-check them also but I want to just let you know---scansion isn't at all an exact science. Different people read sound patterns in slightly different ways, so what you may be seeing with the elision markers is just a difference in reading between our scanners and you.

This doesn't mean that you or we are "right"---there are often two or three different equally viable ways of scanning a poem. However, since our elision marks may also include a typo, I'll go ahead and double-check them.

Hope this helps! Thanks for pointing it out!

Christy Somerville