curtailed sonnet

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

A sonnet deliberately shortened from the traditional 14-line structure

Detailed Definition
A curtailed sonnet is a sonnet deliberately shortened to fewer than 14 lines—often 12 or 13—while retaining thematic or structural echoes of the form; this truncation may signal incompleteness, modern fragmentation, or ironic commentary on traditional closure, challenging the sonnet’s historical expectations.
Example
Example in poetry:
Curtailed sonnet of 13 lines; Hopkins’ “curtal sonnet” like “Pied Beauty”; A truncated sonnet with proportional shortening; Experimental half-length sonnet structures.
Additional Notes
A curtailed sonnet shortens the standard 14 lines, usually to 10–12; often experimental, it retains sonnet qualities in compressed form.
Also Known As
Shortened sonnet Truncated fourteen-liner Abbreviated sonnet Clipped sonnet 10½-line sonnet Curtal sonnet
Skip to main content