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Internal movement

Concept
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 shift in tone, perspective, or energy occurring within a single line or stanza

Detailed Definition
Internal movement refers to the dynamic progression of thought, image, or emotion within a single poetic line or stanza, often achieved through enjambment, syntactic unfolding, or kinetic diction; unlike narrative advancement across stanzas, internal movement captures the fluidity of consciousness or perception in microcosmic form.
Example
Example in poetry:
Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” moves internally from body to cosmos; Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” moves from carriage ride to eternity; T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets” moves through time and memory; Sylvia Plath’s “Ariel” moves from horseback to transcendence.
Additional Notes
Internal movement describes the psychological, emotional, or thematic progression within a poem, even without narrative; students should map how images, sounds, or ideas evolve from beginning to end.
Also Known As
Psychic progression Emotional arc Thematic current Inner trajectory Internal drift
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