Home › Glossary › Letter F

Fleet verse

Form
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 brief poem marked by light, rapid rhythm and concise phrasing, evoking swiftness, agility, or fleeting motion in both form and content.

Detailed Definition
Fleet verse denotes poetry characterized by rapid, light-footed rhythm, often using short lines, enjambment, and minimal punctuation to create a sense of speed, agility, or breathless immediacy; associated with youthful energy, spontaneity, or fleeting impressions, this style appears in e.e. cummings’s typographical experiments or in haiku-inspired English poems where concision and motion merge to capture transient moments.
Example
Example in poetry:
Nursery rhymes like "Hey Diddle Diddle" use quick, light meter; Ogden Nash’s humorous quatrains gallop with irregular but fleet rhythm; e.e. cummings’s playful poems like "in Just-" skip with childlike speed; Lewis Carroll’s "Jabberwocky" uses brisk anapests for adventure; Dorothy Parker’s witty epigrams move with conversational swiftness.
Additional Notes
Fleet verse uses rapid, light-footed meter (often anapestic or dactylic tetrameter) to convey speed, agility, or whimsy—e.g., Lear’s limericks or Byron’s “Destruction of Sennacherib.” It relies on minimal caesura, enjambment, and open vowels. Students should note how pace affects tone: is it playful, urgent, or ironic? Contrast with “marching verse,” which emphasizes weight and regularity.
Also Known As
Swift verse Light-footed lyric Rapid stanza Fleeting composition Racing meter Running verse
Skip to main content