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Expressed silence

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 poetic device where silence itself is articulated or represented within verse

Detailed Definition
Expressed silence refers to moments in poetry where absence, pause, or unsaid meaning carries profound weight—conveyed through white space, ellipsis, or withheld resolution; this technique treats silence as an active compositional element, allowing what is omitted to resonate as powerfully as what is voiced.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Cage’s “Empty Words” uses silence as expressed silence; Robert Lax’s minimalist poems imply silence; W.S. Merwin’s unpunctuated lines create expressed silence; Li-Young Lee’s “Silence” uses line breaks to embody silence; Claudia Rankine’s white space in “Citizen” functions as expressed silence; Ocean Vuong’s “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong” uses caesurae as expressed silence.
Additional Notes
The use of deliberate blank space, punctuation (e.g., long dashes), or strategic absence of text in a poem to represent or convey meaning, giving the unsaid significant weight; related to the concept of caesura.
Also Known As
Silent utterance Voiced pause Poetic hush Articulated silence
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