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Em dash

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 long dash (—) used for dramatic interruption or emphasis in poetic lines.

Detailed Definition
The em dash creates a sharp break, heightening emotional or rhetorical impact; favored by poets like Dickinson, it replaces commas or parentheses to convey urgency, fragmentation, or introspective pauses, shaping the poem’s psychological and rhythmic texture.
Example
Example in poetry:
Em dashes create dramatic pauses: “I saw her—then she vanished”; In Dickinson, em dashes replace commas for breath; Em dashes set off interruptions: “Wait—did you hear that?”; In modern free verse, em dashes link disparate images: “rain—memory—ash”; Em dashes replace colons for immediacy: “One truth—love dies”; In dialogue poems, em dashes mark speaker shifts.
Additional Notes
Em dash: The em dash (—) is a long dash used in poetry for dramatic interruption, apposition, or to replace commas/parentheses; its visual weight creates a strong caesura—modern poets favor it for its flexibility in controlling pace and emphasis without formal punctuation constraints.
Also Known As
long dash m-dash
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