Home › Glossary › Letter C

Cadential overflow

Structure
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

An overflow caused by enjambment extending past rhythmic closure

Detailed Definition
Cadential overflow describes a poetic technique where the expected rhythmic or syntactic closure at a line’s end is deliberately deferred or disrupted by enjambment or semantic continuation, creating tension between anticipated resolution and actual continuation; this overflow challenges traditional cadence while maintaining forward momentum, common in modernist free verse that resists predictable endings.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “Ode to a Nightingale,” Keats’ final stanza overflows cadentially into doubt; Shelley’s “Ozymandias” ends with cadential overflow emphasizing ruin; T.S. Eliot’s “Ash-Wednesday” uses liturgical cadences that overflow into silence; Wallace Stevens’ “The Idea of Order at Key West” ends with cadential overflow into sea sounds; Contemporary poet Jorie Graham often extends lines beyond grammatical closure for cadential overflow.
Additional Notes
A form of enjambment where the rhythmic flow, anticipating the cadence (closure) of the line, is so strong that it spills forcefully onto the next line, delaying the expected final pause; Creates a dynamic tension between line unit and syntactical flow; Related to run-on line.
Also Known As
overflowing cadence cadential spill rhythmic overflow Cadential enjambment
Skip to main content