Poetry is a smooth reading experience for the reader. But, as someone said, “Easy reading is damn hard writing.” In my experience, that’s certainly true. How can you be sure about the pronunciation of a word? The dictionary.
Not all dictionaries are created equal. We writers have our favorites. When I was a new poet, I loved Dictionary.com because of its user-friendly way of showing word stress. Bolded syllables = stressed syllables. It’s foolproof! But it’s not the height of dictionary snobbery like OED and my go-to: Merriam-Webster. *Whispers* Did you know that M-W has a children’s dictionary? For those of us who write kidlit, it’s totally helpful.
Anyway, if you want to be able to use ANY dictionary, here’s the trick. Look for the high-set stress mark, also called a high vertical tick symbol or modifier letter vertical line. It’s placed like an apostrophe, like this: ˈ . To pull up this symbol manually in your word processor, use the code. In decimal, it’s 712. In hexadecimal, it’s U2C8. If there’s a secondary stress, it’s marked by a low-set stress mark, also called a modifier letter low vertical line. It’s placed like a comma, like this: ˌ . This symbol is known by the codes 716 (decimal) and U2CC (hexadecimal). Out in the wild, it may or may not be bolded, but it looked too wimpy and unidentifiable here without the bolding, and I wanted you to be sure what to look for.
Is this useful? What do you think? If using a fancy dictionary seems too annoying, here are five other ways to determine which syllable is stressed.
Happy Writing!
Stephanie
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