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Articulated silence

Concept
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

Intentional use of absence, gap, or unstated meaning as expressive element

Detailed Definition
Articulated silence refers to the deliberate and meaningful use of pauses, white space, or omitted words in a poem to convey what cannot be spoken directly—grief, trauma, awe, or the ineffable—transforming absence into a potent expressive device; this concept recognizes silence not as void but as shaped, intentional, and communicative, as in line breaks that withhold resolution, stanzas separated by blank space suggesting emotional distance, or erasure poetry where removal speaks louder than inclusion, making the unsaid a central element of poetic meaning.
Example
Example in poetry:
Articulated silence: In Li-Young Lee’s “A Story,” the father’s inability to speak (“a story he can’t tell”) is rendered through articulated silence—the unsaid becomes a palpable presence shaped by what surrounds it.
Additional Notes
Meaningful pause or gap in poem, not mere absence but active silence. Related to caesura but emphasizes void as element. Compare with white space. Useful for creating tension or meditation points.
Also Known As
Expressed silence Voiced pause Articulated rest
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