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Breath-line

Structure
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 poetic line whose length and phrasing correspond to the natural duration of a single human breath, favoring organic rhythm.

Detailed Definition
A breath-line is a line of poetry whose length and phrasing are determined by the natural rhythm of human respiration rather than by metrical or syllabic constraints; it often appears in free verse and reflects the speaker’s physiological or emotional state, creating an intimate, organic cadence that mimics spoken utterance.
Example
Example in poetry:
Breath-line: In Denise Levertov’s “The Jacob’s Ladder,” enjambment follows natural breath (“as if / the air / were made / of glass”), creating breath-lines that prioritize organic rhythm over meter.
Additional Notes
Breath-line aligns line breaks with natural breath units (per Olson’s “Projective Verse”); prioritizes organic rhythm over visual or metrical convention.
Also Known As
Breath-length line respiratory verse natural breathing line exhalation-based line atmospheric verse line
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