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Broken 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 deliberate disruption of regular metrical patterns to create tension or emphasis

Detailed Definition
Broken rhythm describes a deliberate disruption of regular metrical patterns through pauses, caesuras, irregular stresses, or omitted beats, used to convey emotional turmoil, hesitation, or fragmentation; it contrasts with smooth, predictable meter and is a hallmark of modernist and confessional poetry.
Example
Example in poetry:
In T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land,” irregular line lengths and abrupt shifts in rhythm (e.g., “April is the cruellest month…”) create broken rhythm to mirror cultural fragmentation; In Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy,” the jarring shift from nursery-rhyme cadence to harsh consonants (“Ach, du”) disrupts expected meter; In W.B. Yeats’s “The Second Coming,” the line “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” breaks iambic pentameter to convey chaos; In Gwendolyn Brooks’s “The Mother,” rhythmic interruptions reflect emotional turmoil: “You were born, you had body, you died.”
Additional Notes
Broken rhythm deliberately disrupts expected metrical patterns to convey emotional turmoil, urgency, or fragmentation; effective in modernist or confessional poetry—contrast with regular meter to heighten the disruption’s impact.
Also Known As
Disrupted meter fractured rhythm syncopated line irregular cadence disrupted cadence Shattered prosody truncated rhythm
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