Endless verse

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

Poetry structured to suggest infinite continuation, often through cyclical or open-ended form

Detailed Definition
Endless verse refers to poetic forms or techniques—such as circular structure, recursive imagery, or open-ended syntax—that resist finality, suggesting continuity beyond the poem’s last line; it may employ palindromic patterns, infinite loops, or unresolved questions to evoke timelessness or perpetual return.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Borges’s “The Circular Ruins,” the poem’s structure implies infinite recursion; In Dylan Thomas’s “In my craft or sullen art,” the closing “loves” and “labouring” suggest endless cycles of creation; In Wallace Stevens’s “The House Was Quiet and the World Was Calm,” the merging of reader and book implies perpetual reading; In Octavio Paz’s “Wind and Water and Stone,” elemental forces cycle without end: “The water undid the stone.”
Additional Notes
Endless verse implies infinite continuation through circular structure, open endings, or recursive language; it resists closure to suggest ongoing cycles—common in eco-poetry or meditations on time.
Also Known As
Infinite verse cyclical poem unending line perpetual stanza Round poem
Skip to main content