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clausal meter

Meter
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

A metrical system organized by the natural phrasing and length of syntactic clauses rather than strict foot-based patterns.

Detailed Definition
Clausal meter is a rhythmic structure in poetry where line breaks and stresses align with syntactic clause boundaries rather than fixed metrical feet, creating a natural, speech-like cadence; this approach prioritizes grammatical logic over traditional prosody, common in free verse and modernist attempts to fuse thought and rhythm organically.
Example
Example in poetry:
Meter built on presence of clauses rather than strict stress count; Pauses marking unit length; Verse measured clause by clause; Syntax‑based metric structure.
Additional Notes
clausal meter|A system of meter where the boundaries of the metrical feet or rhythmic units tend to align precisely with the boundaries of grammatical clauses or phrases.
Also Known As
clause-based measure syntactic meter grammatical rhythm prose-like meter Clausular rhythm
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