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Stopped line

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

A stopped line ends with strong punctuation or syntactic closure, creating a full pause that emphasizes finality, resolution, or rhetorical weight.

Explore this topic in depth (1)

Enjambment and Line Breaks — A line break is more than a piece of page layout: it can interrupt, propel, delay or transform a phrase. This guide explains enjambment, end-stopping and the expressive possibilities of poetic lineation in reading, performance and musical settings.

Detailed Definition
A verse line ending with syntactic completion, punctuation, or natural pause, creating closure that separates it from following lines. Stopped lines, also called end-stopped lines, contrast with enjambed or run-on lines. Each stopped line forms discrete unit with grammatical wholeness and rhythmic completion. Common in ballads, hymns, couplets, and forms emphasizing regular structure, stopped lines reinforce line as both visual and temporal unit.
Example
Example in poetry:
A line ending firmly on a stressed syllable in Hopkins; Closed cadence in Shakespeare’s heroic couplets; Modern poem halting decisively at enjambment; Pope’s polished rhymed stop at line end; Hughes’s blues stanza ending with a strong beat
Additional Notes
Opposite of enjambed line. Creates clear pause and sense of completion. Fundamental to understanding line as unit creating temporal effects.
Also Known As
End-stopped line Closed verse Terminal pause line Non-enjambed line End-stopping
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