Home › Glossary › Letter A

Atmospheric cadence

Device
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

The rhythmic close of lines that evokes a pervasive mood or environmental tone through pacing and sound.

Detailed Definition
Atmospheric cadence ends phrases with rhythms that linger, infusing ambient mood via subtle sonic closure. From Elizabethan song traditions, it cadences in Keats' odes to evoke seasonal melancholy. Poets use it to sustain emotional climates, as in Frost's rural pauses mirroring isolation. This device appears to extend beyond meter, creating immersive worlds. Cadence atmospherically heightens sensory engagement, making poetry's mood palpable and enduring, akin to music's aftertones.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale" cadences lines with soft "thou" endings for dreamy atmosphere; In Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods," snowy pauses create wintry calm; Hypothetical: Cadencing with fading echoes for twilight mood; Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind" cadences gustily for revolutionary tone; Emily Dickinson's dashes create ambient pauses in introspection.
Additional Notes
Atmospheric cadence sets tone through endings, like musical resolutions; students end lines with soft consonants for calm; akin to enjambment; Keats cadences dreamily in odes; usage: vary for mood shifts; scholars link to prosody, studying its immersive power in evoking environments from pastoral to stormy.
Also Known As
Mood cadence Tonal closure
Skip to main content