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Attritional rhythm

Meter
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 pattern that gradually breaks down or erodes over successive lines, mirroring thematic decay or instability.

Detailed Definition
Attritional rhythm mimics the gradual wearing down of energy, hope, or material through repetitive, eroding metrical patterns; using diminishing stresses, fading rhymes, or syntactic decay, it embodies exhaustion, entropy, or historical loss, as in war poetry or elegies confronting irreversible change.
Example
Example in poetry:
Attritional rhythm: In Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est,” the dragging, labored rhythm (“Bent double, like old beggars under sacks…”) embodies attritional rhythm—mimicking exhaustion and the slow erosion of war.
Additional Notes
Attritional rhythm wears down through repetition or fragmentation, mimicking exhaustion or decay; powerful in poems about loss, war, or entropy.
Also Known As
Wearing rhythm erosive meter gradual deterioration rhythm fading cadence
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