Home › Glossary › Letter M

mood-based break

Device
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

mood-based break|device|A line or stanza break timed to reflect a shift in emotional tone, atmosphere, or psychological nuance within the poem.

Detailed Definition
A mood-based break is a line or stanza division determined not by syntax or logic but by shifts in emotional intensity or tonal quality, allowing the poem’s pacing to mirror the ebb and flow of feeling rather than grammatical structure.
Example
Example in poetry:
A line break that emphasizes a sudden change in the speaker's emotional state or tone; Breaking a line at a point that creates an abrupt shift in the emotional weight of the word: 'I thought I was safe / Terror struck the room'; A break that forces the reader to pause and reconsider the emotional intent of the line: 'I walked with a heart that was light and free / Heavy with the coming dread'; A line that ends with a word that is emotionally neutral, and the next line begins with a powerful, contrasting word.
Additional Notes
mood-based break: A line or stanza break that is motivated primarily by a sudden shift or change in the emotional atmosphere or mood of the poem, often for dramatic effect.
Also Known As
emotive break tonal pause mood division Atmospheric caesura
Skip to main content