Home › Glossary › Letter W

wheel-and-bob

Form
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 stanza form featuring a short “bob” line followed by a rhyming “wheel” of longer lines, common in Middle English alliterative verse.

Detailed Definition
Wheel-and-bob is a medieval English stanza form consisting of a quatrain (the “wheel”) followed by a short rhyming couplet or single line (the “bob”), used notably by Chaucer and Langland; the bob acts as a refrain or punchline, creating rhythmic surprise and structural emphasis.
Example
Example in poetry:
A refrain (“bob”) alternating with longer narrative stanzas (“wheel”): “The knight rode out at break of day (wheel) / And never came again (bob)”; Ballad structure with repeating short lines: “She walked the shore (wheel) / Alone (bob) / The tide rolled in (wheel) / Unknown (bob)”; “The river runs (wheel) / So cold (bob) / Through fields of green (wheel) / And old (bob)”; Traditional example: “The Twa Corbies” with alternating full and truncated lines
Additional Notes
wheel-and-bob: The shorter lines that conclude a stanza in certain metrical forms, especially the tail-rhyme stanza; the 'bob' is usually a very short, connecting line, and the 'wheel' is the final, longer rhyming section.
Also Known As
Bob and wheel Wheel-and-bob stanza Medieval bob-verse
Skip to main content