Home › Glossary › Letter A

Antediluvian verse

Genre
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

Poetry thematically concerned with pre-flood or extremely ancient times.

Detailed Definition
Antediluvian verse refers to poetry dealing with the period before the biblical flood, often focusing on the ancient world, primordial times, or pre-flood civilizations. This term can describe poems set in that mythological era, verse exploring themes of ancient corruption and divine judgment, or metaphorically, poetry concerned with archaic or primitive states. Antediluvian verse often carries connotations of lost innocence, divine wrath, or the gulf between humanity's origins and current condition.
Example
Example in poetry:
Antediluvian verse evokes pre-flood myth: “Before the deluge, stars walked among men”; In Blake’s “The Book of Urizen,” primordial chaos births law; Contemporary poets use “antediluvian” to critique modernity’s fragility; Lines heavy with archaic diction: “Lo, the earth was void and the waters deep”; Such verse often blends biblical tone with speculative cosmology.
Additional Notes
Antediluvian verse is a thematic categorization for poetry that deals with the period "before the biblical Flood" (antediluvian), often exploring ancient, mythical, or lost worlds with a sense of awe or moral decay.
Also Known As
Primordial verse Prehistoric poetry Ancient before-the-flood song Bideluvian
Skip to main content