Home › Glossary › Letter U

Unmetered verse

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

Poetry written without a regular metrical pattern, often synonymous with free verse

Detailed Definition
Unmetered verse, or free verse, rejects regular metrical patterns in favor of organic rhythms shaped by breath, syntax, or thought; while lacking consistent stress counts, it often employs cadence, repetition, and lineation for musicality, allowing greater flexibility to mirror natural speech or modern psychological complexity.
Example
Example in poetry:
Walt Whitman’s free verse in “Song of Myself”; T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”; Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”; Contemporary free verse by Tracy K. Smith or Ocean Vuong
Additional Notes
Unmetered verse lacks regular metrical pattern but may still use rhythm, cadence, or syllabic count; common in free verse and modern poetry.
Also Known As
Free verse Cadenced poetry Rhythmically loose verse Non-metrical lyric Arrhythmic verse Vers libre
Skip to main content