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Phrasal meter

Device
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 metrical approach that treats whole phrases—not just traditional feet—as rhythmic units, often aligning poetic rhythm with natural speech patterns.

Detailed Definition
Phrasal meter measures rhythm not by strict syllabic or stress counts but by the natural cadence of speech phrases, allowing variable line lengths that follow breath, thought, or colloquial intonation; it underpins much free verse, prioritizing organic flow over metronomic regularity.
Example
Example in poetry:
Phrasal meter follows speech rhythms, not strict feet: “I went to the store and bought some bread” (iambic but conversational); Frost’s “The Death of the Hired Man” uses natural phrasing within blank verse; “She said, ‘Maybe tomorrow,’ but her eyes said never.”
Additional Notes
Phrasal meter: Meter that follows natural speech phrasing rather than strict foot patterns; common in free verse and conversational poetry; prioritizes rhythm of thought over prosodic rules.
Also Known As
Phrase-based rhythm Syntactic meter Breath unit Phrasal rhythm
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