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Diminution cadence

Device
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 closing rhythmic gesture that reduces metrical intensity, often to suggest fading or resignation.

Detailed Definition
A Diminution cadence is a metrical or sonic tapering toward the end of a line or stanza—through shorter words, softer consonants, or falling rhythm—that evokes fading, resignation, or gentle closure; common in elegies and lullabies, this technique mirrors emotional diminuendo, as in the whispering endings of Keats’s odes or the hushed refrains of Emily Dickinson’s hymns.
Example
Example in poetry:
Diminution cadence: lines shorten to whisper; “Shout! / Cry! / Sigh... / .”; Plath’s “Edge”: “Her bare / Feet seem / To be saying: / We have come so far, it is over”; Modern: “War. / Guns. / Silence.”; Cadence fades like breath; used for emotional descent.
Additional Notes
Rhythmic conclusion using diminution (shortening note values or line length). Creates sense of acceleration or compression. Musical term applied to prosody. Related to catalexis and truncation.
Also Known As
tapering cadence fading cadence
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