Home › Glossary › Letter T

truncated Sapphic

Meter
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

A shortened variation of the Sapphic stanza missing metrical elements.

Detailed Definition
Truncated Sapphic is a four-line stanza adapting the classical Sapphic meter (three hendecasyllabic lines + adonic) but shortened in syllable count or stress pattern for modern English; it retains the form’s lyrical intensity while accommodating linguistic differences, as in poets who compress the Sapphic to evoke ancient emotion through contemporary brevity.
Example
Example in poetry:
Original Sapphic: 11-11-11-5 syllables; Truncated: “Moonlight on water — / still” — reduced to two lines; “Wine, bread, song — / gone.” — essence retained in brevity; Modern example: “Autumn leaves fall fast — / cold.” — Sapphic fragment
Additional Notes
truncated Sapphic|A variation of the Sapphic stanza where the final line of the stanza is shortened by one or more metrical units, giving the classic, highly structured form a deliberate sense of incompleteness or sudden stop.
Also Known As
Cut Sapphic Shortened Sapphic Abridged Sapphic line Catalectic Sapphic
Skip to main content