Home › Glossary › Letter M

Multi-voiced poem

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 poem in which multiple speakers or perspectives are presented within the text

Detailed Definition
A multi-voiced poem features two or more distinct narrative or lyrical perspectives that interact, contradict, or harmonize, creating a polyphonic texture that challenges monologic authority and invites readers to navigate competing truths or emotional registers.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem presented as a series of letters, testimonies, or spoken-word accounts from various individuals; A lyric where the typography or stanza breaks clearly indicate a shift in the speaker or persona; A poem that uses a chorus or a collective voice alongside an individual narrator; A dramatic monologue that incorporates the voices of others through reported speech or brief impersonations.
Additional Notes
Multi-voiced poem: Synonym for multi-voice verse (3887); a poem where different sections or lines are clearly attributable to separate, distinct speakers or points of view.
Also Known As
polyphonic poem choral lyric multi-speech verse dialogic Heteroglossic poem Multivoiced lyric
Skip to main content