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time break

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 deliberate interruption in verse that signals the passage of time

Detailed Definition
A time break is a deliberate rupture in chronological sequence within a poem—marked by white space, typographical shift, or tense change—that signals a jump between temporal planes; this device fractures linear narrative to reflect memory’s nonlinearity, historical trauma, or prophetic vision, as in Muriel Rukeyser’s documentary poems that splice past and present injustices.
Example
Example in poetry:
“— 1945 — / the bombs fell / and silence grew teeth” — historical rupture marked typographically; “(Pause: 3 seconds) / Then the bird sang” — literal time notation; “// Winter 1999 // snow covered the tracks” — temporal segmentation; “— Intermission — / The war resumed at dawn” — theatrical time break in verse
Additional Notes
time break|A formal or narrative pause in a poem's action or flow, indicating a jump forward or backward in time; it's often signified visually by extra spacing, an asterisk (∗), or a caesura (a pause in the line) and is a key technique in narrative or sequential poetry.
Also Known As
Temporal break Time division Chronological pause Chronoclasm
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