Home › Glossary › Letter C

Clastogenic verse

Form
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 built from the fragments of other, shattered texts or phrases.

Detailed Definition
Clastogenic verse describes poetry that thematically or formally enacts fragmentation, rupture, or breaking—whether of language, identity, history, or the body—drawing on the biological term “clastogenic” (chromosome-breaking); such verse often employs disjointed syntax, erasure, collage, or traumatic imagery to represent psychological disintegration, colonial violence, or ecological collapse, as in M. NourbeSe Philip’s “Zong!” or the fractured elegies of Paul Celan, where form mirrors the shattering of coherence.
Example
Example in poetry:
Clastogenic verse breaks form to mirror trauma: Plath’s “Daddy” shatters syntax like bone; “Fractured lines, splintered thoughts— / the poem won’t hold” – contemporary clastogenic style; War poetry like Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” uses disrupted meter as clastogenic device; Not a standard term; interpreted as verse embodying fragmentation from violence or crisis.
Additional Notes
Verse suggesting breaking, fragmentation, or chromosomal disruption. Experimental form often employing broken syntax. Related to: fragmentary verse, disjunctive poetry. From "clastogenic" (causing breaks).
Also Known As
fragment verse shard poetry
Skip to main content