Home › Glossary › Letter B

Breath-length line

Meter
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 poetic line determined by the average length of a single breath

Detailed Definition
Breath-length line is a poetic line calibrated to the natural duration of a single breath, allowing the reader or performer to speak it without pausing; this principle, central to Charles Olson’s projective verse, grounds poetic rhythm in the body’s physiology, rejecting abstract meter in favor of organic, lived temporality and expressive immediacy.
Example
Example in poetry:
Charles Olson’s “Maximus Poems” use breath-length lines to mirror bodily presence; Ginsberg’s “Kaddish” lines extend or contract with emotional breath; Levertov’s “Overland to the Islands” uses breath-length lines for meditative pacing; Contemporary poet CAConrad structures lines by actual inhalation/exhalation; Anne Waldman’s performance poetry often follows breath-length phrasing.
Additional Notes
A line of poetry whose length is determined by the natural capacity of the speaker's breath; The line ends where a speaker would naturally pause to inhale; A foundational principle of Charles Olson's Projective Verse; Related to Breath group and Breath-measured line.
Also Known As
Breath-long line Lung-length measure Full-breath line Breath-line
Skip to main content