telegraphic poetry

Form
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

Verse written with minimal words, resembling telegram-like brevity

Detailed Definition
Telegraphic poetry uses extreme compression, omitting articles, conjunctions, and verbs to create stark, urgent fragments that mimic telegraph messages or emergency signals; this style prioritizes immediacy and raw impact over grammatical completeness, as in the Imagist poems of H.D. (“Oread”) or wartime dispatches where brevity conveys crisis, trauma, or essential truth stripped of ornament.
Example
Example in poetry:
Telegraphic poetry uses clipped, minimal phrasing like telegrams: “Rain. Gone. Wait.”; “Stop. Look. Listen. Live.”; “No bread. No hope. No end.”; Inspired by haiku or Imagist brevity: “In a Station of the Metro” (Pound)—“Petals on a wet, black bough.”
Additional Notes
telegraphic poetry|Verse characterized by extreme terseness and concision, omitting articles, conjunctions, and other function words as a telegram would, creating a clipped, immediate, or urgent tone.
Also Known As
Minimalist poetry Telegram verse Brief line poetry Brachylogical verse
Skip to main content