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Volta

Musical Terms
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

Volta is a musical turn or change of direction, and the term also names a significant shift in a poem’s argument or feeling.

Explore this topic in depth (2)

Sonnet — The sonnet is one of poetry's most enduring forms: compact enough to concentrate thought, yet flexible enough for love, politics, faith, nature and grief. This guide explores its history, structures and variations, with particular attention to the volta—the turn that gives many sonnets their dramatic movement.

How to Read a Poem — Poetry is not a puzzle with one hidden answer that only experts can decode. Begin by noticing what a poem actually does: read it, hear it, question it, and return to it.

Detailed Definition
In musical phrasing, a volta may mark a turn toward a new section, tonal area, or expressive character. In poetry, especially in the sonnet, it identifies the point where thought, perspective, or emotional pressure changes course. The turn may answer an earlier claim, complicate it, or reveal its hidden cost. A successful volta feels both surprising and prepared, because the poem’s earlier tensions make the new direction possible.
Example
Example in poetry:
In a sonnet, the volta is the turn in thought that often arrives near the ninth line; In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130, the final couplet provides a volta by shifting from comic comparison to sincere praise; A poem may announce its volta with “but,” “yet,” or “now,” though the turn can also be implicit; A narrative poem can place its volta at the moment when an observed landscape becomes a revelation about the speaker
Additional Notes
Volta means a turn or change of direction. In musical contexts it can indicate a turn in a melodic line; in poetry, especially a sonnet, it marks a shift in argument, perspective, mood, or imagery. Signal words such as “but,” “yet,” or “therefore” often announce the turn.
Other Meanings of “Volta”
Also Known As
Turn Ending
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