Home › Glossary › Letter C

Cislocative Verse

Genre
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

Poetry that uses language and imagery to ground the reader firmly in the immediate location and present moment, resisting travel or nostalgia.

Detailed Definition
Cislocative Verse is poetry that emphasizes proximity, intimacy, or “nearness” in spatial, emotional, or linguistic terms, often using deictic markers (“here,” “this”) to ground the reader in an immediate, shared present moment or locale.
Example
Example in poetry:
Cislocative Verse focuses on local or immediate surroundings rather than distant or abstract realms; Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish” exemplifies this: “He was speckled with barnacles, / fine rosettes of lime,” anchoring attention in precise, nearby detail.
Additional Notes
Verse emphasizing location "on this side" (cis-) of boundary. Spatial poetry technique. Contrasts with translocative. Study tip: Note how physical positioning creates meaning through proximity.
Also Known As
Near-location verse Proximate-space poetry This-side verse Cis-position poetry
Skip to main content