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Fracture break

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 line break that produces disruption or disjunction in sense or flow.

Detailed Definition
Fracture break is a sharp, disruptive pause or line break that mirrors psychological rupture, trauma, or cognitive dissonance—often marked by abrupt syntax, white space, or punctuation; unlike smooth caesurae, this break conveys fragmentation, creating jarring transitions that reflect inner turmoil or the breakdown of coherent narrative or identity.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy,” fracture breaks mark psychological rupture: “I think I may well be a Jew”; M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong! uses fracture breaks to dismantle slave ship log syntax; In Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen,” fracture breaks isolate microaggressions: “What did you say?”; Contemporary poet Safia Elhillo uses fracture breaks to navigate bilingual identity; In Danez Smith’s “summer, somewhere,” fracture breaks signal afterlife transitions; In Harryette Mullen’s “Muse & Drudge,” fracture breaks disrupt blues lyricism with linguistic play.
Additional Notes
A Fracture break is a line break, caesura, or stanza break that is particularly jarring, abrupt, or disruptive to the syntax or sense of the poem; it is deliberately used to signal a strong emotional or intellectual rupture, often reinforcing the poem's theme of brokenness or tension.
Also Known As
Break in rhythm structural rupture fracture line Antipodal enjambment
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