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Double bar

Notation
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 double bar is a pair of vertical lines in musical notation that typically indicates the end of a section or the conclusion of a piece.

Detailed Definition
Double bar: A double bar (notated as ‖ or ||) in poetic scansion serves as a visual delimiter that signifies a strong metrical or structural division, most commonly representing a caesura within a line or a boundary between major sections of a poem; unlike a single foot division mark (|), the double bar emphasizes a more pronounced pause or shift in rhythm, thought, or syntax—frequently used in the analysis of classical quantitative meters and in editorial notation to clarify phrasing; in some traditions, it also marks the end of a strophe or a refrain unit, helping readers and performers interpret the architecture of complex verse forms with greater precision.
Example
Example in poetry:
In medieval manuscript notation, the double bar (||) often marked the end of a metrical line or stanza in sung poetry, especially in liturgical verse; In modern scansion, a double bar may separate distinct metrical sections within a line to highlight internal structure, as seen in scholarly analyses of Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse; Some contemporary experimental poets use the double bar typographically to signal a thematic or tonal rupture, such as in Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen”: "You are in the dark, in the car... || What did you say?"; In academic editions of classical poetry, editors sometimes insert a double bar to denote a caesura that coincides with both syntactic and rhythmic breaks; In musical settings of poetry, a double bar in the score may align with a poetic caesura to cue a pause or breath for the performer; The double bar also appears in poetic forms like the sestina or villanelle in annotated guides to demarcate repeating end-words or refrains across stanzas.
Additional Notes
The double bar denotes strong caesuras or section divisions in metrical analysis; in poetry, especially when aligned with musical settings, it signals structural shifts, refrains, or thematic transitions, reinforcing the architecture of the verse.
Also Known As
double vertical bar metrical double bar
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