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Brevity

Concept
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 quality of expressing much in few words, often valued in poetic composition

Detailed Definition
Brevity in poetry denotes the deliberate use of minimal words to convey maximum meaning, emotion, or effect; it emphasizes concision without sacrificing depth, often achieved through precise diction, omission of superfluous modifiers, and reliance on implication, as seen in haiku or epigrams where every syllable carries significant weight.
Example
Example in poetry:
Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro”: “The apparition of these faces in the crowd; / Petals on a wet, black bough”; William Carlos Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow”: “so much depends / upon”; Matsuo Bashō’s haiku: “An old silent pond... / A frog jumps into the pond— / Splash! Silence again”; Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers” uses minimal words to convey a complex metaphor.
Additional Notes
Brevity: The concise use of language in poetry; a hallmark of effective verse where every word carries weight and unnecessary filler is avoided.
Also Known As
Conciseness Economy of words Poetic terseness Concision terseness Brachylogy
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