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Blazon

Rhetorical Devices
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 blazon is a detailed poetic catalogue of a beloved's physical features, usually praising each part through elaborate comparisons. It often treats the body as a sequence of idealized images.

Detailed Definition
The blazon developed prominently in Renaissance love poetry as a formal praise of the beloved's body, often proceeding from hair and eyes to lips, hands, and breast. Each feature is compared to precious, natural, or celestial objects, turning admiration into a patterned verbal display. Poets use the device to heighten sensuality, demonstrate wit, and participate in conventions of courtly love. A blazon may also expose the speaker's objectifying gaze, allowing later poets to revise, satirize, or challenge its inherited ideals of beauty.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Her hair is spun gold, her eyes are sapphires, her lips are roses” catalogues admired features; Shakespeare’s sonnet “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” playfully rejects conventional blazon comparisons; “Her hands, two white lilies, hold the book of dawn” isolates and praises a body part; “His brow, a cliff, his voice, an oak, his heart, a shield” builds a portrait through successive details
Additional Notes
The blazon, associated with Renaissance love poetry, praises or describes a beloved by cataloguing body parts, often comparing each feature to precious objects or natural wonders. Modern poets may revise or challenge the form by questioning its objectification, changing the gaze, or using the catalogue ironically. The anti-blazon instead emphasizes flaws or refuses idealization.
Other Meanings of “Blazon”
Also Known As
Blason Heraldic Description Catalogue of Beauties
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