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Tercet

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 tercet is a three-line stanza or poem, which may stand alone or form part of interlocking schemes like terza rima.

Explore this topic in depth (2)

Stanzas in Poetry — A stanza is more than a block of lines on a page. Learn how stanza patterns, breaks and repetitions organise a poem—and how those structures can change when the words are spoken or sung.

Villanelle — A villanelle is a tightly patterned poem built from two alternating refrain lines, five tercets and a final quatrain. Its repetitions do not simply repeat: as the surrounding language and situation change, the same words can gather pressure, doubt, grief, desire or surprise.

Detailed Definition
A tercet is a three-line stanza or poetic unit, which may follow various rhyme schemes (e.g., AAA, ABA) or appear unrhymed; it is notably used in terza rima (ABA BCB CDC…) and provides rhythmic flexibility, allowing poets to develop ideas with more complexity than a couplet while maintaining lyrical cohesion.
Example
Example in poetry:
Dante’s “Inferno” uses tercets in terza rima: “Midway upon the journey of our life / I found myself within a forest dark”; In “Ode to the West Wind,” Shelley employs tercets: “O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being”; Contemporary poet A.E. Stallings writes tercets in “Sestina: Like”; Emily Dickinson’s poem “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died” uses a modified tercet structure; In “The Snow Man,” Wallace Stevens uses stark tercets to evoke winter’s clarity.
Additional Notes
Tercet: A three-line stanza; used in terza rima, villanelles, and standalone lyrics; offers balance between brevity and development.
Also Known As
Three-line stanza Triplet Tercet form Tri-verse unit Tristich Three-line unit
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