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circular verse

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

Poetry that begins and ends with the same or nearly the same words or ideas

Detailed Definition
Circular verse is a poem structured to end at its beginning—either through identical opening and closing lines, mirrored stanzas, or rotational form—so that reading it anew feels inevitable; this closed-loop design emphasizes cyclical time, ritual repetition, or the illusion of narrative resolution, common in folk songs and meditative lyrics.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem ending with the same line it began with; Villanelles structured by circular verses; Round poetry like pantoums; Lyrics cycling to original refrain.
Additional Notes
circular verse|A poem or stanza where the final line connects back to the first line (either grammatically or thematically) so that the entire piece could theoretically loop endlessly; related to Circling.
Also Known As
ring verse looped verse cyclical verse revolving poetry Circular stanza concentric verse Cyclic verse Roundabout verse
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