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Fission

Constraint
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 poem that splits into multiple divergent versions or voices from a single origin point.

Detailed Definition
Fission begins with a core line or stanza that branches into parallel texts, each evolving independently; this constraint models cellular or narrative division, enabling polyphony or alternate realities, and uses fragmentation as generative principle to explore multiplicity, choice, or the instability of singular truth through formally enacted divergence.
Example
Example in poetry:
Fission in poetry: splitting stanzas into atomic fragments; nuclear age poems (Muriel Rukeyser’s “The Book of the Dead”); constraint poets divide lines via radioactive decay metaphors; fission as formal rupture (breaking sonnets); digital fission generating variant texts; bilingual fission separating languages mid-poem.
Additional Notes
Fission splits poems into fragments—nuclear, emotional, or formal. Students use rupture to convey instability. It connects to atomic age poetry and deconstruction.
Also Known As
Splitting nuclear fission (metaphorical)
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