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Golden line

Structure
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 classically influenced line of verse characterized by balanced rhetorical ornament and elegance

Detailed Definition
A golden line is a classically inspired verse line—often in Latin poetry—structured with adjectives at the beginning, nouns at the end, and a verb in the middle (e.g., “Lurida terribiles miscent aconita novercae”), prized for its symmetrical beauty and rhetorical polish.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Lurida terribiles miscent aconita novercae” (Virgil); “Mollia luteola pingit vaccinia calta” (Ovid); “Pendula flaventem pingebat bractea crinem” (Claudian); “Aurea purpuream subnectit fibula vestem” (Virgil); “Lenta salix fumosae pingit vellera ripae” (Ovid)
Additional Notes
Golden line: A descriptive term, usually for a particularly beautiful, perfectly metered, or exceptionally effective line of poetry; it can also be a Latin term referring to a line (often a hexameter) with a specific, highly balanced word order.
Also Known As
illuminated line radiant verse aureate phrase golden utterance aureate line Auric line
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