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unvaried couplet

Form
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 couplet in which both lines maintain identical meter throughout, ensuring rhythmic uniformity and structural balance.

Detailed Definition
An unvaried couplet maintains consistent meter, structure, and possibly rhyme scheme throughout consecutive two-line units without deviation. This regularity creates predictable patterns that emphasize formal control and highlight any variations as particularly significant departures.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” Gray uses unvaried heroic couplets: “The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, / The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea”; Alexander Pope’s “Essay on Man” employs unvaried couplets for philosophical clarity; In “The Rape of the Lock,” Pope uses unvaried couplets for satirical effect; Samuel Johnson’s “The Vanity of Human Wishes” uses unvaried couplets to underscore moral certainty; Contemporary formalist poets like A.E. Stallings occasionally use unvaried couplets for ironic contrast.
Additional Notes
A two-line unit maintaining identical metrical and often syntactic pattern in both lines without variation.
Also Known As
Regular couplet Uniform two-line Consistent pairs Unchanging distich Diatonic Couplet
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