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equal-stress line

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 line where stresses are evenly distributed across its segments

Detailed Definition
An equal-stress line is a poetic line in which each foot or segment carries the same number of stressed syllables, often used in accentual verse traditions to maintain rhythmic consistency without strict adherence to syllable count.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The CURfew TOLLS the KNELL of PARTing DAY” (Gray) evenly distributes four stresses; “And I will LAY me DOWN in MY cold BED” (folk ballad) balances stresses across the line; “To BE or NOT to BE, that IS the QUESTion” (Shakespeare) uses five clear, evenly spaced stresses; “The WORLD is TOO much WITH us; LATE and SOON” (Wordsworth) maintains regular iambic stress.
Additional Notes
An equal-stress line distributes stresses evenly (e.g., four stresses in tetrameter); key in Germanic and ballad traditions; differs from syllable-counting by focusing on beats.
Also Known As
Iso-stress line Balanced-stress line Regular-stress line Isobaric line
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