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Scorched line

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

A poetic line evoking imagery of burning, destruction, or consuming fire

Detailed Definition
Scorched line is a poetic line stripped of ornament, metaphor, or emotional inflection—rendered stark, blunt, or desolate—to convey trauma, disillusionment, or existential bareness; this technique, common in postwar or confessional poetry, uses minimalism as a form of expressive extremity or ethical witness.
Example
Example in poetry:
A scorched line appears in Sylvia Plath’s "Daddy": “The black telephone’s off at the root”; In Anne Sexton’s "Her Kind," the line “I have gone out, a possessed witch” burns with emotional intensity; W.H. Auden’s “Stop all the clocks” uses scorched brevity: “He was my North, my South, my East and West”; Lucille Clifton’s “won’t you celebrate with me” contains the scorched line: “come celebrate / with me that everyday / something has tried to kill me”
Additional Notes
Scorched line is an extremely specialized and non-standard term for a line of poetry, possibly referring to a line that has been heavily revised, marred, or has a fiery, passionate, or emotionally intense content; not a standard term in prosody.
Also Known As
Charred line scorched phrase burnt verse line Burnt line
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