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Condensation ratio

Concept
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 measure of how much meaning or content is packed into a given poetic space

Detailed Definition
Condensation ratio measures the degree to which a poem compresses meaning into minimal language, calculated by comparing the semantic density (number of distinct ideas or images) to the total word count; high condensation is typical of imagist or haiku traditions where implication outweighs exposition.
Example
Example in poetry:
In haiku by Bashō: “old pond— / frog jumps in / sound of water,” where 17 syllables condense image, sound, and stillness; In Dickinson’s “Hope is the thing with feathers,” 12 lines condense an abstract concept into a concrete metaphor; In Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow,” 16 words condense dependence, color, and rain; In Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro,” 2 lines condense urban anonymity and natural beauty.
Additional Notes
Condensation ratio: A metric for how much narrative or descriptive density is packed into poetic lines; linked to brevity and compactness.
Also Known As
Density index Poetic compactness Concentration ratio Compression ratio
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