Home › Glossary › Letter A

Adopted speaker

Concept
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 persona or voice assumed by the poet that differs from their own identity

Detailed Definition
An adopted speaker is a persona or voice assumed by the poet that is distinct from their biographical self, allowing exploration of alternative perspectives, historical figures, or fictional characters; this rhetorical strategy enables poets to address themes like trauma, identity, or social critique with emotional distance or imaginative freedom, as in dramatic monologues by Browning or persona poems by Sylvia Plath.
Example
Example in poetry:
A contemporary poet writing as Sappho to explore ancient lesbian desire; A male poet adopting the voice of a 19th-century seamstress to critique labor conditions; A modern writer speaking as a medieval monk to reflect on digital isolation; A poet assuming the persona of a displaced refugee to convey migration trauma
Additional Notes
An adopted speaker is a persona or voice assumed by the poet that differs from their real identity; crucial in dramatic monologues and persona poems—helps explore perspectives beyond the self.
Also Known As
Assumed persona borrowed voice surrogate speaker adopted persona Adopted voice borrowed speaker Borrowed persona
Skip to main content