Home › Glossary › Letter M

miniature song

Form
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 very short lyrical poem, often song-like in rhythm and brevity

Detailed Definition
A miniature song is a brief, highly concentrated lyric that captures a single moment, emotion, or image with song-like brevity and musicality; often untitled and aphoristic, it distills experience into a few lines, as in the haiku tradition or the compact lyrics of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence.
Example
Example in poetry:
A haiku: “Old pond / frog jumps in / sound of water”; A two-line poem: “Stars blink. / I sigh.”; A four-line verse: “The kettle sings. / Steam curls like a question. / I pour. / Silence.”; A six-word poem: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
Additional Notes
Miniature songs are ultra-brief lyrics (haiku, epigrams); they rely on precision and implication—every word must earn its place.
Also Known As
Brief lyric Pocket poem Epigrammatic song Miniature verse Brief song Short lyric
Skip to main content