Scanning Harris

Just Another Way She Rocks!

A while back, I scanned some well-known sentences in a speech by Donald J. Trump and discovered there a preponderance of iambic pentameter. Today, writing to you from deep amid the anxieties and hopes of Election Day 2024, I am enjoying the other half of the job. Here is my scansion of some well-known sentences in a speech by Kamala Harris. As with so many aspects of the two candidates, the metrical qualities of their speeches are radically different.

My Trump scansions reveal narrowness of character and rigidity of values. Scanning Harris, on the other hand, reveals resilience of character and values rooted in connection to a full spectrum of human capacities. The regular rhythmical patterns in the well-known segment of a Trump speech that I scanned are all oriented to one single meter, iambic pentameter. Iambic is the authoritative meter that has ruled and dominated the English language through generations of patriarchal power; it is also the “meter of the mind.” Iambic pentameter, and its close ally iambic tetrameter, are the meters that Trump returns to repeatedly for heightened rhetorical effects. By contrast, Harris’s more extensive and flexible metrical vocabulary enables her to draw on a range of other meters —for example, the meters of heart, will, and common sense. Harris’s rhythmical resilience enriches her speeches with variety and emotional range.

My scansion of Trump may be found here. Below is my scansion of a well-known passage from a speech by Harris (I have broken up the lines to show more clearly the repeating rhythmical patterns):

Unlike Trump’s either/or approach to meter (iambic or nothing), Harris’s approach is more inclusive: her metrical range adds to but does not replace the dominant meter of iambic pentameter. In time-honored fashion, she uses iambic pentameter to establish authority by opening a key passage in her speech with a line of 5 exact iambs in a row: “I took on perpetrators of all types.” The use of the meter of the mind is effective here to summarize her point in succinct and objective language.

But Harris’s use of iambic pentameter is only one piece of a sensitively deployed wider metrical repertoire. In her next metrical ‘line’ Harris smoothly changes rhythmical course, aiming directly for the emotions of her audience with a passage in exact dactylic meter: “fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their personal gain.” If you would like to experience this shift more intimately, try reading the first two “lines” of the passage aloud (at least once, or #speakitthrice!). While saying the words, stay alert for a shift from mind-energy to heart-energy as you feel emotions move through you—perhaps compassion for the victims and/or rage at the injustice.

In the next two, shorter ‘lines,’ Harris returns to the clarity and authority of iambic meter—but this time in the shorter, more forceful line of 3 feet instead of 5 feet:

“So, hear me when I say

I know Donald Trump’s type.”

The symmetry of these two lines carries a commanding ring akin to that of a spell. Rather than appealing to discursive logic like iambic pentameter, this shorter iambic line appeals to a more intimate, trustworthy aspect of our minds: common sense and our body’s physical recognition of truth. It’s as if, now that she has established a bond of human kinship with our hearts, Harris can now circle back to address our minds with a simple, self-evident, more grounded kind of logic. Interestingly, these iambic lines sound very close to trochaic meter, the grounded meter of the body; the “so” in the first line is almost like a grace note, and the line “Hear me when I say” appeals with a startling directness, akin to a spell (after all, trochaic meter is known as the meter of witches’ spells, including “double double toil and trouble” in MacBeth.)

Harris winds up this passage by bringing in yet another meter: anapests, the meter of the will: “I’ve been dealing with people like him my entire career.” The anapestic rhythm conveys commitment, dedication, pride, and passionate intention—an appropriate way to underline Harris’s promise to put Trump in his place.

Tonight I’m hoping and praying to all the Goddesses I know that we will have the joy of experiencing much more of Harris’s fluent, metrically diverse rhythmical language in years to come!