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Ephelis

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 small poetic blemish, akin to a minor imperfection, intentionally left

Detailed Definition
Ephelis (plural: ephelides) is a prosodic term for an extrametrical, unstressed syllable added to a line’s end, especially in Greek and Latin verse; it functions like a feminine ending in English, softening closure without disrupting the core metrical pattern.
Example
Example in poetry:
Emily Dickinson’s “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” uses ephelides (interjections): “How dreary—to be—Somebody!”; Shakespeare’s Sonnet 147: “For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright, / Who art as black as hell, as dark as night”—the exclamation is implied through contrast; John Donne’s “The Sun Rising”: “Busy old fool, unruly Sun”—the vocative acts as ephelis; Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus”: “Herr God, Herr Lucifer / Beware”—interjections heighten drama; Lucille Clifton’s “miss rosie”: “you wet brown bag of a woman”—the descriptor functions as emphatic ephelis; Frank O’Hara’s “Having a Coke with You” uses casual interjections (“and wow”) as modern ephelides.
Additional Notes
Short lyric poem or brief interlude. Greek term meaning "upon the song." Less common than related forms. Modern use rare. Compare: fragment, lyric interlude.
Also Known As
Brief lyric Short poem Minimal verse Compact composition
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