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Fleeting poetry

Concept
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

Verse that emphasizes transience, impermanence, or ephemerality in theme, form, or performance context.

Detailed Definition
Verse that exists temporarily through performance, digital media, or ephemeral materials, challenging traditional assumptions about poetry's permanence and fixed text. This includes slam poetry existing primarily in performance, digital poetry changing over time, and installation pieces designed to disappear. Fleeting poetry emphasizes experiential immediacy over textual permanence, exploring poetry as event or process rather than fixed object and questioning the relationship between poetry and duration.
Example
Example in poetry:
W.B. Yeats’ “The Wild Swans at Coole” evokes fleeting poetry through seasonal change; Bashō’s haiku (“Old pond— / a frog jumps in— / sound of water”) captures momentary insight; contemporary poet Ada Limón writes “The Leash” to seize a dog-walking instant amid pandemic fear; fleeting poetry emphasizes impermanence and presence; it often uses nature as temporal marker; this mode resists monumentality for immediacy.
Additional Notes
Poetry existing temporarily through performance, digital media, or ephemeral materials. Challenges assumptions about poetry's permanence. Includes slam poetry, digital poetry, and installation pieces meant to disappear.
Also Known As
Ephemeral verse Performance poetry Temporary poem Evanescent verse Ephemeral poem
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