Elision
Elision is the omission of a vowel, syllable, or sound so a word fits the rhythm or meter of a poem. Poets may show it with an apostrophe in a contracted form such as o'er or ne'er, or they may let neighboring sounds run together in performance. Elision is still used in both traditional and modern verse, especially when a poet wants to tighten the beat.
Example
The sun has sink'd behind the hill
and night comes soft across the dell.
I hear the wind, not all the rain,
that hush'd the road and rang the bell.
Related Definitions
[n] a deliberate act of omission; "with the exception of the children, everyone was told the news"
[n] omission of a sound between two words (usually a vowel and the end of one word or the beginning of the next)
Related Terms
abbreviation, abridgment, abstract, apocope, aposiopesis, clipping, compression, condensation, conspectus, contraction, crasis, curtailment, cutting, ellipsis, epitome, foreshortening, precis, pruning, recap, recapitulation, reduction, retrenchment, short