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Mesostic

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

Poem in which a vertical sequence of letters, often from a word or phrase, appears mid-line

Detailed Definition
A mesostic is a poetic form where a vertical phrase intersects horizontal lines, with each line containing a letter from the central word in sequence but not at the start; developed by Jackson Mac Low, it generates aleatory textures while maintaining constrained textual architecture.
Example
Example in poetry:
A mesostic from John Cage: “JAMES / A / M / E / S”; Mesostics spell a name vertically with horizontal lines; In “Notations,” Cage uses mesostics for chance operations; Contemporary mesostics explore identity: vertical “MOTHER” in fragmented lines; Mesostics require each vertical letter to appear in sequence, not at line start
Additional Notes
Vertical acrostic reading down middle of lines rather than first letters. Related: acrostic, telestic. Created by positioning words so middle letter column spells message. Requires precise spatial arrangement.
Also Known As
Vertical acrostic Middle-letter poem Spine poem Central acrostic
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