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Once-written verse

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

A poem composed for a single performance or inscription, emphasizing ephemerality, uniqueness, or ritualistic one-time delivery.

Detailed Definition
Once-written verse refers to poetry created in a single, unrevised sitting, emphasizing intuitive flow and emotional immediacy over technical perfection; this approach, championed by poets like Kerouac, treats the first draft as the purest manifestation of inspiration, resisting editorial intervention to preserve its original energy and authenticity.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem composed for a single wedding toast and never reused; A verse written on a leaf and released into a river; A haiku whispered to a friend and never written down; A protest chant created for one march and discarded afterward
Additional Notes
Once-written verse suggests immediacy and raw expression, as if captured in a single burst of inspiration; while most poetry involves revision, this ideal values unfiltered voice and emotional urgency.
Also Known As
Unrevised verse impromptu poem single-draft lyric raw poetic utterance Hapax Epigram
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