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irregular couplet

Form
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 two-line unit that departs from conventional couplet norms through mismatched meter, slant or absent rhyme, or asymmetrical phrasing.

Detailed Definition
An irregular couplet consists of two successive lines that rhyme but differ in meter, length, or syntactic structure, defying the balanced expectations of heroic couplets; this asymmetry can reflect emotional instability, modern fragmentation, or deliberate subversion of classical order.
Example
Example in poetry:
Couplets irregularly structured: One long, one short line; Uneven syllable counts in a pair; Varied meters in coupled lines; Experimental uneven rhyme
Additional Notes
irregular couplet: A two-line stanza that either does not rhyme or whose lines vary significantly in meter or length; functions as an occasional variation in a poem dominated by a more regular couplet form.
Also Known As
uneven couplet irregular pair asymmetrical couplet Asymmetric couplet
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