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Capacious 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

An extended poetic line containing multiple clauses, images, or syntactic units, allowing for expansive thought within a single breath or measure.

Detailed Definition
A capacious line is a poetic line that feels expansive—through long phrasing, inclusive diction, or syntactic generosity—able to hold multiple images, ideas, or voices within a single breath; such lines resist minimalism in favor of abundance, as in the catalogs of Walt Whitman or the sprawling sentences of C.D. Wright, where the line becomes a vessel for democratic inclusivity, emotional overflow, or the sheer multiplicity of lived experience.
Example
Example in poetry:
Capacious line: A long, expansive line holding multiple clauses or images—e.g., Whitman’s “Song of Myself”: “I celebrate myself, and sing myself, and what I assume you shall assume,” embodies openness and inclusivity.
Additional Notes
Abyssal imagery: Evokes deep, dark, oceanic or existential voids; often symbolizes despair, the subconscious, or the unknown; related to chthonic and liminal imagery in Romantic and Modernist poetry.
Also Known As
Wide line expansive verse generous line spacious verse
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