Home › Glossary › Letter S

Scattered-people verse

Genre
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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

Scattered-people verse explores themes of diaspora, exile, or displacement, often using fragmented form, multilingual elements, or migratory imagery.

Detailed Definition
Scattered-people verse addresses experiences of diaspora, displacement, or geographical dispersion across communities. This poetry explores how separation shapes identity, culture, and connection, often examining what holds dispersed groups together across distance and time.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “The Waste Land,” Tiresias witnesses scattered-people verse: typist, clerk, Thames daughters; In “Leaves of Grass,” Whitman catalogs “butcher boy, prostitute, president” as scattered-people verse; Contemporary poet Danez Smith lists Black victims of police violence as scattered-people verse; Student example: poem naming strangers on a subway as scattered-people verse; Another: pandemic-era poem listing masked faces.
Additional Notes
Poetry about dispersed or scattered populations, exploring themes of diaspora, exile, and communities separated across geography.
Also Known As
Diaspora verse Exile poetry Displacement poetry Scattered-community verse Diasporic Poetry (multiple groups)
Skip to main content