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Acephalous line

Structure
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A metrical line that begins with a stressed syllable because its initial unstressed syllable has been omitted, common in iambic verse.

Detailed Definition
Acephalous line is a poetic line that omits the initial unstressed syllable of its expected metrical foot, typically in an iambic context, resulting in a line that starts with a stress (e.g., “Break, break, break” by Tennyson); this headless beginning intensifies rhythm and emotional urgency.
Example
Example in poetry:
An acephalous line lacks its initial unstressed syllable; for example, in Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” the line “Whose woods these are I think I know” begins with a stress, making it acephalous if read as iambic tetrameter.
Additional Notes
Preferred modern term for headless line. Missing expected initial unstressed syllable. Often used for dramatic effect or emphasis. Natural variation in iambic verse.
Also Known As
headless line truncated line acephalous trimeter
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