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Run-on pair

Structure
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

Two consecutive lines where the sentence continues without pause into the next

Detailed Definition
A run-on pair is a couplet in which the syntactic unit continues uninterrupted from the first line to the second, avoiding end-stopped closure to maintain momentum and unity; Keats’s “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter” exemplifies how enjambment can deepen thought across two lines.
Example
Example in poetry:
Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn”: “Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter”; Shelley’s “Ozymandias”: “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; / Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”; Dickinson: “Because I could not stop for Death— / He kindly stopped for me”; Frost: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, / But I have promises to keep”
Additional Notes
A run-on pair consists of two lines where syntax and sense flow uninterrupted across the line break—enhances momentum and natural speech rhythms; fundamental technique in enjambed verse.
Also Known As
Enjambed couplet flowing pair syntactic continuation run-on distich Flowing doublet Overflowing two-liner Run-on couplet
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