Home › Glossary › Letter I

Interrupted recurrence

Device
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

A motif, image, or phrase that recurs throughout a poem but appears at irregular, non-consecutive intervals, creating thematic echoes.

Detailed Definition
Interrupted recurrence describes repeated elements separated by significant breaks, gaps, or intervening material that disrupts pattern regularity. This technique creates tension between expectation and delay, using interruption to emphasize what returns while marking temporal or structural distance.
Example
Example in poetry:
T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” uses interrupted recurrence of “HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME”; Emily Dickinson’s recurring “Circumference” motif appears in interrupted form; Contemporary poet Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen” uses interrupted recurrence of “you”; Sylvia Plath’s “Ariel” interrupts recurrence of “child’s cry”; Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods” interrupts recurrence of “miles to go”; Ocean Vuong’s “Time Is a Mother” interrupts recurrence of mother’s voice.
Additional Notes
A recurring element that appears again after being interrupted or suspended, creating patterns of return across textual breaks.
Also Known As
Broken recurrence Split repetition Interrupted echo Divided repeat Diacope
Skip to main content