Home › Glossary › Letter E

Extended measure

Meter
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

A metrical unit—foot, line, or stanza—that exceeds conventional length, often to convey expansiveness, overflow, or heightened emotion.

Detailed Definition
Extended measure: A poetic line significantly longer than standard meter, stretching beyond conventional length constraints to create expansive, flowing, or breathless effects. Extended measure often appears in free verse or experimental poetry where line length serves expressive rather than metrical purposes.
Example
Example in poetry:
Lines longer than traditional pentameter or hexameter; extended verse paragraphs; prose poems using length for effect; long-line poetry like Whitman's expansive verses
Additional Notes
Longer than traditional pentameter or hexameter lines; Whitman's expansive lines exemplify this; allows for more complex syntax and accumulation of detail; can create rolling, oceanic rhythms; requires careful control to avoid prose-like flatness
Also Known As
Long line Expansive verse Stretched meter Durational Hypermetric line
Skip to main content