Home › Glossary › Letter H

Hypermetric expansion

Meter
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

The deliberate addition of extra syllables beyond a line’s standard metrical count, often for expressive emphasis.

Detailed Definition
Hypermetric expansion: The strategic addition of extra syllables or feet beyond a line’s expected metrical norm, often at the end (feminine ending) or mid-line, to create rhythmic surprise, emotional emphasis, or mimetic elongation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Hypermetric expansion: Adding an extra unstressed syllable beyond the metrical norm, as in Tennyson’s “The Charge of the Light Brigade”: “Half a league, half a league, / Half a league onward” — the final “onward” adds a hypermetric syllable for emphasis.
Additional Notes
Adding extra syllables/feet beyond expected meter. Metrical extension technique. Related: hypercatalexis, metrical variation. Study: expansion vs. substitution strategies.
Also Known As
Line extension Metrical overflow Foot addition Syllabic surplus
Skip to main content