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Stretched 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 deliberately extended beyond conventional length—through added syllables, clauses, or imagery—to create emphasis, tension, or expansive descriptive effect.

Detailed Definition
A stretched line is a poetic line extended beyond conventional metrical or syntactic expectations, either through added syllables, enjambment, or rhetorical expansion, to convey urgency, overflow of emotion, or conceptual complexity; this technique challenges formal containment, allowing the line to “breathe” or strain against its boundaries, as seen in Whitman’s long free-verse lines or contemporary poets using lineation to mirror psychological or political expansiveness.
Example
Example in poetry:
A stretched line extends beyond normal metrical or syntactic bounds: Whitman’s “I contain multitudes” expands rhythmically beyond traditional limits; In Ginsberg’s “Howl,” “who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking…” stretches syntax and breath; “The endless sky unspooled its silver thread across the waiting earth” exceeds typical line length for emphasis; Modern free verse often uses stretched lines to convey overwhelming emotion or scope.
Additional Notes
Stretched line|A line of verse, often in free verse, that is significantly longer than the surrounding lines or the expected norm for the poem, drawing attention to its content or rhythm; it can mimic a long breath or sustained thought.
Also Known As
Extended line stretched verse elongated line Attenuated line elongated verse line
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