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Ictus

Meter
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

The ictus marks the metrical stress or beat in a line of poetry during scansion, indicating where emphasis falls in rhythmic analysis.

Detailed Definition
Ictus: The metrical stress or beat in a line of verse, marking the perceived emphasis in rhythmic scanning; while often aligned with linguistic stress, ictus is a theoretical construct that may differ from actual pronunciation for metrical effect.
Example
Example in poetry:
Ictus: In “To bé or nót to bé,” ictus falls on bolded syllables; Scanning “The cúrfew tólls” marks ictus on stressed beats; Ictus creates rhythmic backbone in iambic pentameter; In sprung rhythm, ictus clusters unpredictably; Musical notation of poems marks ictus as downbeats; Students tap ictus to feel meter’s pulse physically
Additional Notes
Metrical stress or beat. Latin "stroke." Marks rhythmic emphasis. Related: stress, scansion, arsis/thesis. Study: ictus vs. natural speech stress—sometimes differ.
Also Known As
Metrical stress beat rhythmic accent stressed syllable Accent Stress
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