Syncope
Quick answer: Syncope in poetry is the omission of a sound from the middle of a word, as in o'er for over or heav'n for heaven. See how it keeps strict meter on count.
Syncope is the omission of a sound or syllable from the middle of a word, turning over into o'er, ever into e'er, and heaven into heav'n. Like aphaeresis at the front of a word and apocope at the end, it is a contraction device, and its usual job in poetry is metrical: it removes one unstressed syllable so a line lands on its required count. The apostrophe in the printed word marks where the missing sound used to live.
For poets working in strict accentual-syllabic meter, syncope was standard equipment for roughly four centuries. Milton, Pope and the hymn writers all trimmed words this way, and readers of the period took the convention in stride. Understanding it matters today mostly for reading: once you know that heav'n is one syllable by design, whole stretches of older verse suddenly scan properly instead of seeming clumsy.
How It Works
The dropped sound is almost always an unstressed vowel sitting between consonants, often before r, l or n: trav'ler, wand'ring, murm'ring, med'cine. English speech does this naturally, which is why the poetic convention never felt forced. Every and camera lose a syllable in ordinary conversation without any apostrophe at all.
Here is an invented line of iambic pentameter that depends on it: A trav'ler paused beneath the wint'ry oak. Spelled in full, traveller and wintry's older form wintery would swell the line past ten syllables. Syncopated, the line keeps five clean iambic feet.
Where You Will See It
Paradise Lost is full of syncope, since Milton policed his syllable counts with unusual rigour. Eighteenth-century poets such as Pope treated forms like o'er and e'er as normal poetic spelling rather than special effects. Hymnals kept the habit alive longest, because a hymn's tune fixes the syllable count absolutely. If you sing from an older hymn book you will still find heav'n, pow'r and ev'ry printed with their apostrophes, small fossils of a metrical culture.
Syncope and Modern Practice
Contemporary poets almost never print o'er or heav'n, but they still exploit the elasticity syncope points to. Many English words have a fast and a slow pronunciation, and a poet counting syllables or shaping rhythm can lean on either. Interesting can be four syllables or three; family can be three or two. You do not need an apostrophe to use this, only an ear. Decide how you hear the word, scan it that way consistently, and trust an attentive reader to follow.
What poets can take from this
- Learn the classic forms (o'er, e'er, ne'er, heav'n) so older poems scan correctly when you read them.
- In new work, prefer words whose natural fast pronunciation gives you the count, not printed apostrophes.
- Say the syncopated word aloud inside the whole line before you commit to it.
- Be consistent: do not scan family as two syllables in one stanza and three in the next.
- If a contraction survives into your final draft, make sure it earns its slightly antique flavour.
Try it yourself
Take ten common words that shed a syllable in fast speech (every, camera, memory, favourite, general and five of your own). Write a syllable-counted poem, seven syllables per line, that uses at least five of them in their compressed pronunciations.
Questions
What is the difference between syncope and elision?
Elision is the umbrella term for omitting sounds; syncope is the specific case where the omission happens inside a word. Aphaeresis (start of a word) and apocope (end of a word) are its siblings under the same umbrella.
Why do old poems spell heaven as heav'n?
The apostrophe told the reader to pronounce the word as one syllable so the line would keep its metrical count. It was a standard printing convention from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century, especially in hymns.
Is poetic syncope related to syncopation in music?
They share a Greek root meaning a cutting up, but the meanings differ. Musical syncopation displaces the expected beat; poetic syncope removes a sound from the middle of a word. A poem can contain both without any connection between them.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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