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organic cadence

Meter
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 naturally flowing rhythmic pattern suggesting growth or spontaneity

Detailed Definition
Organic cadence describes a poem’s rhythm that arises naturally from its thought patterns, breath, and emotional flow rather than imposed meter, producing a speech-like yet musical pulse that feels innate to the poem’s content and voice.
Example
Example in poetry:
The flow and pause in a sentence-length line of free verse; The natural pauses in the syntax of a prose poem; The rhythm dictated by the stressed syllables of a common spoken phrase; The musicality created by a poet's choice of word length and grammatical structure;
Additional Notes
organic cadence: The natural, unforced rise and fall of speech or language in a poem that arises from the meaning and emotional content, rather than from a pre-determined, mechanical metrical scheme; a feature of excellent free verse.
Also Known As
natural cadence innate rhythm Autogenic rhythm irregular prosody
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