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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
The point at which a poetic line ends, often used to control rhythm, meaning, or reader expectation through enjambment or pause.
Explore this topic in depth (3)
How to Compare Poems
— Comparing poems is not a matter of making two separate lists. It is a way of seeing how poems ask related questions in distinct voices, shapes and sounds—and of discovering what each poem makes newly visible in the other.
Enjambment and Line Breaks
— A line break is more than a piece of page layout: it can interrupt, propel, delay or transform a phrase. This guide explains enjambment, end-stopping and the expressive possibilities of poetic lineation in reading, performance and musical settings.
Imagism
— Imagism was an early twentieth-century Anglo-American poetic movement that made clarity, compression and musical rhythm into a programme. Its poems ask readers to attend closely: a few concrete details, carefully arranged, can carry perception, feeling and thought.
Detailed Definition
Line break is the point at which a poet ends one line and begins another, a crucial formal decision that shapes rhythm, emphasis, and meaning; enjambment (breaking mid-phrase) creates fluidity and surprise, while end-stopped lines offer closure, making lineation a primary tool of poetic craft.
Example
Example in poetry:
Emily Dickinson’s “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—” uses line break before “Blue” to create suspense; William Carlos Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow” breaks after “so much depends / upon” to emphasize dependency; Contemporary poet Ocean Vuong breaks lines mid-word: “be/longing” to split identity; Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” uses line break: “I think I may well be a / Jew” to delay revelation; Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods” breaks: “And miles to go before I sleep” for rhythmic emphasis; Gwendolyn Brooks’ “We Real Cool” breaks after “We” to isolate collective identity.
Additional Notes
Line break: The point at which a line of poetry ends; crucial for pacing, emphasis, and meaning; enjambment (breaking mid-phrase) creates tension, while end-stopped lines offer closure.