Marginal overflow

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 typographic or structural technique where poetic text visually extends into the page margin, suggesting overflow or excess.

Detailed Definition
Marginal overflow describes poetic lines or stanzas that exceed conventional boundaries—typographically, thematically, or linguistically—spilling into footnotes, white space, or intertextual margins to challenge textual containment; associated with postmodern and experimental poetry (e.g., Susan Howe), it treats the page as contested terrain where meaning leaks beyond sanctioned limits, foregrounding erasure, annotation, and the politics of the unsaid.
Example
Example in poetry:
A note-like line continuing into margin space; Overflow footnote-like extension in verse; Words bleeding beyond layout bounds; Peripheral continuation.
Additional Notes
Marginal overflow extends poetic content into margins, footnotes, or white space. Related to side-note continuation and peripheral run-on. Challenges linear reading—consider how spatial arrangement comments on or complicates the main text.
Also Known As
Margin overflow Peripheral spill Outer continuation Exergual Enjambment
Skip to main content