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gap poetry

Genre
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

Poetry that foregrounds absence, silence, or textual lacunae as central to its meaning or form

Detailed Definition
Gap poetry emphasizes absence, silence, or textual rupture as central to meaning, using white space, line breaks, or omitted words to evoke loss, trauma, or the unsayable; influenced by postmodern and trauma theory, it treats the unsaid as potent, inviting readers to engage with voids as active sites of interpretation and emotional resonance.
Example
Example in poetry:
Poems using white space to imply absence, like in Lucille Clifton’s “the earth is a living thing” with strategic gaps; Yoko Ono’s “Grapefruit,” where instructions contain poetic gaps; In “Zong!” by M. NourbeSe Philip, gaps represent silenced voices of enslaved Africans; Anne Carson’s “Nox,” using fragmented text and blank spaces to mourn her brother
Additional Notes
Gap poetry uses strategic omissions—white space, line breaks, or syntactic leaps—to invite reader participation in meaning-making; influenced by haiku and modernist fragmentation (e.g., Williams, Oppen).
Also Known As
Poetry of Absence Silence Verse Void Lyric Erasure Poem Lacuna poetry Negative space verse
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