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icon-framing 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 line break or caesura that visually or conceptually frames an iconic image

Detailed Definition
An icon-framing break is a typographic or syntactic pause—such as a line break, caesura, or stanza division—that isolates a key image or word, giving it emblematic or iconic status within the poem; by surrounding the element with white space or silence, the poet draws attention to its symbolic weight, transforming it into a visual and conceptual focal point that resonates beyond its immediate context.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow,” the line break after “upon” frames the image as iconic; Dickinson’s dashes isolate phrases like “the Soul selects her own Society—” as visual icons; Cummings’ lineation in “l(a” shapes the word “loneliness” visually; Pound’s metro poem uses lineation to elevate “petals” into symbolic focus.
Additional Notes
An icon-framing break uses lineation or white space to visually isolate or highlight a key image, turning it into an “icon” within the poem; common in concrete and visual poetry.
Also Known As
Iconic caesura image-highlighting break visual pause emblematic line break Iconographic enjambment
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