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atonal continuation

Device
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 device where melodic or harmonic stability is avoided across line breaks, creating dissonance; it produces tension, unease, or a sense of unresolved continuity in the poem's sonic texture.

Detailed Definition
Atonal continuation refers to a poetic sequence that proceeds without harmonic resolution, rhythmic regularity, or tonal center, creating a sense of dissonance, drift, or unresolved tension; inspired by musical atonality, it reflects modernist anxieties about meaning, coherence, and spiritual grounding.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Ashbery’s “Paradoxes and Oxymorons” uses atonal continuation: lines resist melodic resolution; atonal continuation avoids harmonic or rhythmic closure, mimicking modern dissonance; in “The Waste Land,” fragmented voices create atonal effect; contemporary example: Claudia Rankine’s prose blocks shift tone without transition; this technique reflects fractured subjectivity; it rejects traditional poetic “music” for cognitive realism.
Additional Notes
atonal continuation describes the progression of sound in a poem that deliberately avoids or departs from a traditional or expected rhythmic/harmonic pattern, similar to atonal music; common in experimental or non-metrical free verse.
Also Known As
atonal flow dissonant continuation non-melodic sequence unpitched progression Atonal enjambment
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