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non-semantic verse

Concept
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

Poetry emphasizing sound and rhythm over conventional meaning or logical sense

Detailed Definition
non-semantic verse: Poetry emphasizing sound, rhythm, or visual pattern over conventional semantic meaning, including sound poetry, concrete verse, and experimental work prioritizing non-linguistic dimensions. Non-semantic verse questions poetry's obligation to communicate conventional meaning and explores language's materiality beyond reference. While seeming to reject meaning, such verse often generates significance through form itself. Understanding non-semantic verse reveals poetry's potential to work beyond normal communication and shows how meaning emerges from multiple dimensions including visual, sonic, and structural features, not semantic content alone.
Example
Example in poetry:
non-semantic verse: Kurt Schwitters’s “Ursonate” uses phonetic sounds without lexical meaning; bpNichol’s “The True Eventual Story of Billy the Kid” plays with typographic and sonic nonsense; Christian Bök’s “Eunoia” restricts vowels but prioritizes sound over sense; Dadaist poetry like Hugo Ball’s “Karawane” rejects semantic logic; contemporary sound poets like Jaap Blonk perform vocal improvisations devoid of referential meaning; non-semantic verse emphasizes materiality of language over communication.
Additional Notes
Non-semantic verse prioritizes sound, rhythm, and visual arrangement over literal meaning. This experimental approach treats language as musical or visual material rather than vehicle for conventional communication.
Also Known As
unsemantic poetry non-signifying verse meaningless form Asemic line Asemic poetry
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