Home › Glossary › Letter I

Interval-structured

Structure
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 poem organized around measured gaps or pauses between lines, stanzas, or ideas

Detailed Definition
Interval-structured poetry organizes its form around measured gaps—temporal, spatial, or thematic—between sections, where the silence or absence between units carries as much meaning as the text itself; inspired by musical rests or cinematic cuts, this approach treats intervals as active compositional elements that shape rhythm and implication.
Example
Example in poetry:
Old English verse like “Beowulf” uses interval-structured alliterative lines with caesura; Gerard Manley Hopkins’s sprung rhythm uses stress intervals; Charles Olson’s “Projective Verse” advocates interval-based composition; Robert Duncan’s “The Torso” uses spacing as interval structure.
Additional Notes
Interval-structured poetry uses measured pauses, line breaks, or spacing as compositional elements (Olson’s “breath” theory); students should consider how intervals create rhythm, silence, or visual meaning on the page.
Also Known As
Breath-structured verse Pause-governed poetry Rhythmic interval form Measured silence poetry Intervallic
Skip to main content