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End-stopping

Structure
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 poetic line that concludes with a grammatical pause—marked by punctuation or syntactic closure—creating emphasis and rhythmic stability.

Detailed Definition
End-stopping occurs when a poetic line concludes with punctuation that completes a grammatical unit, creating a pause that emphasizes closure, clarity, or rhetorical weight; it contrasts with enjambment and often reinforces meter or thematic segmentation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Shakespeare: “To be, or not to be: that is the question.”; Milton: “Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit”; End-stopping creates emphasis in Dickinson: “Because I could not stop for Death –”; Contrast with enjambment to teach rhetorical pause.
Additional Notes
The practice of ending lines at natural syntactic pauses (punctuation), aligning grammar with line structure. Opposite of enjambment. Creates stable, measured effects. Related to caesura. Study how end-stopping establishes authority and clarity in formal verse.
Also Known As
Line break pause end punctuation stopped line terminal caesura
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