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rough 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

Informal or metrically irregular poetry, often with a rustic tone

Detailed Definition
Rough verse denotes poetry that deliberately employs irregular meter, harsh consonance, or colloquial diction to convey authenticity, urgency, or social critique; rejecting polished elegance, it embraces dissonance and asymmetry as tools for emotional honesty or political resistance, as seen in much working-class or protest poetry.
Example
Example in poetry:
Brecht’s “Alabama Song” with its jagged rhythm; William Blake’s “London” with its harsh “marks of weakness, marks of woe”; Philip Larkin’s blunt “They fuck you up, your mum and dad”; Working-class ballads with irregular meter and raw diction
Additional Notes
Rough verse uses irregular meter, colloquial diction, or dissonant sounds to convey authenticity, urgency, or rebellion; it contrasts with polished neoclassical styles and appears in protest or working-class poetry.
Also Known As
Coarse verse rugged lyric unpolished stanza earthy doggerel Coarse composition Knittelvers
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