---
title: "About Shelf Sonnet and Its Sources | Shelf Sonnet"
description: "What Shelf Sonnet is, how its poetry and reading tools work in your browser, and the dictionary, word lists and research behind them, with their licences."
url: https://shelfsonnet.me/about/
---

About

# About Shelf Sonnet

Shelf Sonnet is a small set of free tools for people who read and write poetry and for anyone with too many books: a [syllable and meter counter](https://shelfsonnet.me/), a [rhyme finder](https://shelfsonnet.me/rhyme-finder/), a [poetry forms reference](https://shelfsonnet.me/poetry-forms/), and calculators for [reading time](https://shelfsonnet.me/reading-time-calculator/), [reading goals](https://shelfsonnet.me/reading-goal-planner/) and [shelf space](https://shelfsonnet.me/bookshelf-calculator/). There are no accounts and no adverts.

## How it works

Everything runs in your browser. The meter counter and the rhyme finder download a compact copy of the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary from this site the first time you use them (about 0.6 MB compressed) and search it on your device, in the background so the page stays responsive. What you type, paste or count is never uploaded.

The counter reads each word’s syllables and stress from the dictionary. It follows American pronunciation, lets one-syllable words take their stress from the poem’s meter, reads older spellings such as dimm’d and wander’st by the usual rules, and estimates words the dictionary does not have, marking them so you can check them by ear. It is a guide to the sound of a poem, not a judge of it.

## Data, research and licences

- **The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary**, Carnegie Mellon University ([github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict](https://github.com/cmusphinx/cmudict)), converted from the [cmu-pronouncing-dictionary](https://github.com/words/cmu-pronouncing-dictionary) package into the file [/dictionary/cmudict.txt](https://shelfsonnet.me/dictionary/cmudict.txt), which ships with its licence, [/dictionary/LICENSE.txt](https://shelfsonnet.me/dictionary/LICENSE.txt). The copyright notice and licence are reproduced below.
- **SCOWL word lists** (Spell Checker Oriented Word Lists), Copyright 2000-2016 by Kevin Atkinson, via the [wordlist-english](https://github.com/jacksonrayhamilton/wordlist-english) package: used only to put everyday words first in the rhyme finder and to hide names and abbreviations. Full notice: [/dictionary/LICENSE-SCOWL.txt](https://shelfsonnet.me/dictionary/LICENSE-SCOWL.txt).
- **Reading speeds**: Marc Brysbaert, “How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate”, *Journal of Memory and Language* 109 (2019), 104047 ([doi:10.1016/j.jml.2019.104047](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.104047)).
- **Poetry forms**: the glossaries of the [Academy of American Poets](https://poets.org/glossary/sonnet) and the [Poetry Foundation](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/ballad). Example poems are in the public domain and each names its source.
- **Type and icons**: Bona Nova and Piazzolla (SIL Open Font License), installed from Fontsource; icons from Lucide (ISC licence).

## CMU Pronouncing Dictionary licence

```
Copyright (C) 1993-2015 Carnegie Mellon University. All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
   The contents of this file are deemed to be source code.

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
   notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
   the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
   distribution.

This work was supported in part by funding from the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency, the Office of Naval Research and the National
Science Foundation of the United States of America, and by member
companies of the Carnegie Mellon Sphinx Speech Consortium. We acknowledge
the contributions of many volunteers to the expansion and improvement of
this dictionary.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY ``AS IS'' AND
ANY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY
NOR ITS EMPLOYEES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
```