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Barque

Transport
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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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 small sailing vessel, often used as an image of passage or peril.

Detailed Definition
A barque is a small sailing vessel, commonly associated with coastal travel, trade, fishing, or romantic seafaring. In poetry, it can carry speakers across literal water or symbolize a soul moving through uncertainty, memory, love, or death. Its modest scale makes it especially useful for intimate voyages, where a lone traveler confronts weather, distance, and fate. Poets may contrast the fragile barque with the vastness of sea and sky.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, “It is the star to every wandering bark” uses bark, a variant of barque, for a ship guided by love; “A barque of lanterns drifted down the moonlit river” gives the vessel a delicate visual presence; The poet may use “barque” instead of “boat” to create an elevated or old-fashioned nautical tone; “My small barque crossed the dark water of grief” turns the vessel into a metaphor for personal endurance; “Beyond the harbour, the barque leaned into the wind” uses the ship’s movement to suggest departure and adventure
Additional Notes
A barque is a small sailing vessel, and in poetry it often carries meanings beyond its literal nautical sense. Poets may use it to suggest a person's journey through life, an uncertain voyage, exile, trade, discovery, or danger at sea. Its smallness can emphasize human vulnerability before wind, waves, fate, or time. Notice surrounding imagery such as harbours, storms, sails, anchors, and distant shores, which can clarify whether the barque represents hope, escape, loss, or spiritual passage. Related transport images include ship, boat, skiff, vessel, and ark.
Also Known As
Bark Barcan
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