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Bodily expression

Concept
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

The use of movement, gesture, or physical presence to convey poetic meaning.

Detailed Definition
Bodily expression in poetry refers to the use of physical gestures, postures, sensations, or anatomical references to convey emotion, identity, or meaning; it foregrounds the body as a site of poetic truth, often challenging abstract or intellectualized language by grounding verse in visceral, sensory, or performative experience, as in confessional or feminist poetry.
Example
Example in poetry:
Whitman’s “I sing the body electric” — celebrates the physical form through tactile and sensory language; Sylvia Plath’s “The Applicant” — uses bodily metaphors to critique gender roles; Lucille Clifton’s “homage to my hips” — asserts identity through bodily description; Anne Sexton’s “The Fury of Overshoes” — links childhood memory to physical sensation.
Additional Notes
Bodily expression in poetry uses physical sensation or gesture as meaning-carrier; links to embodied verse. Useful in performance studies—note kinesthetic diction.
Also Known As
Corporeal expression somatic utterance physical articulation embodied gesture Gestural
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