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base meter

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

The underlying metrical pattern that governs a poem’s rhythm, even when varied or obscured by substitution or inversion.

Detailed Definition
Base meter is the underlying rhythmic pattern that governs a poem’s structure, such as iambic pentameter or trochaic tetrameter, against which variations and substitutions are measured; it provides the skeletal framework for prosody, ensuring coherence even amid rhythmic experimentation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Shakespeare’s sonnets use iambic pentameter as their base meter, though lines may begin with a trochee or contain extra syllables; “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” establishes five largely iambic feet; A ballad commonly has alternating four- and three-beat lines as its base meter; In free verse, a recurring three-stress pulse can function as a base meter without requiring identical feet
Additional Notes
base meter is the fundamental, underlying metrical pattern of a poem (e.g., iambic pentameter) before any variations, substitutions, or catalexis are applied; the rhythmic foundation.
Also Known As
foundational meter primary rhythm base rhythm core meter Baseline rhythm
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