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Selvedge

Craft Terms
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

Selvedge is the self-finished edge of a poem that keeps its language from unraveling.

Detailed Definition
A poem’s selvedge may be its opening and closing diction, a consistent voice, a recurring formal boundary, or a carefully controlled field of reference. It gives the work an edge that feels intentional even when the interior is fragmented or exploratory. In a sequence, each section can have its own selvedge while contributing to a larger textile. Attending to selvedge helps a poet decide what belongs inside the poem’s world and what should remain outside as explanatory scaffolding.
Example
Example in poetry:
The selvedge is a poem’s visible outer boundary, including its margins, first line, and last line; Consistent left alignment creates a clean selvedge that emphasizes formal control; A poet may use wide blank margins as a selvedge around a sparse lyric; In a prose poem, the paragraph’s edges become the selvedge that shapes how its density is perceived
Additional Notes
Selvedge names a poem’s self-finished boundary, the feature that keeps its language from fraying at the edges. It may be created by consistent lineation, a repeated margin, controlled syntax, or a diction that establishes an internal limit. Selvedge differs from a hem because it concerns the poem’s ongoing edges, not only its final finish. Examine how beginnings, line endings, and stanza boundaries contain or release energy.
Also Known As
Selvage Self-Edge
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