Home › Glossary › Letter A

Astrophic poem

Structure
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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 poem composed as a single, unbroken block of text without stanzaic breaks, often used to convey urgency, density, or continuous thought.

Detailed Definition
An astrophic poem is a composition written without stanzaic breaks, presenting its content in a single, unbroken sequence of lines; this structure is common in classical epics like Homer’s Iliad or modern free verse, emphasizing continuity and momentum rather than rhythmic segmentation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Astrophic poems lack stanzas—flowing as continuous verse paragraphs; Whitman’s "Song of Myself" is a classic astrophic epic; Modern examples: Claudia Rankine’s "Citizen" blends prose and poetry without breaks; This form suits stream-of-consciousness or meditative modes; Astrophic structure rejects segmentation for immersive unity.
Additional Notes
Poem without stanzaic divisions, flowing continuously. Opposite of strophic; common in narrative and meditative verse. Compare with verse paragraphs and stichic forms.
Also Known As
non-strophic continuous verse
Skip to main content