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Lacunary stanza

Structure
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 stanza that incorporates deliberate omissions—of words, lines, or sense—to evoke absence, fragmentation, or interpretive openness.

Detailed Definition
A Lacunary stanza features deliberate gaps, omissions, or white space that function as integral poetic elements; these lacunae invite reader participation, suggest unspeakable trauma, or mirror thematic absence, as in post-Holocaust poetry or works influenced by Mallarmé’s “silence” as compositional strategy.
Example
Example in poetry:
Lacunary stanza appears in Sappho’s fragments, where gaps become poetic space; In Anne Carson’s “If Not, Winter,” brackets mark missing text; In M. NourbeSe Philip’s “Zong!”, legal text gaps signify erased voices; In contemporary poet Solmaz Sharif’s “Look,” redacted military terms create lacunae; In Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen,” white space functions as lacunary stanza.
Additional Notes
A stanza containing gaps or omissions, creating incomplete syntax or thought. Deliberate fragmentation. Modern experimental technique. Related to ellipsis and negative space. Compare with complete, self-contained stanzas.
Also Known As
Gapped stanza Missing-line form Void verse unit Blank-space stanza
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