Bulbarrow

Historical Location
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 hill in Dorset, included among the heights where the speaker finds solitude.

Detailed Definition
Bulbarrow is a real Dorset hill and part of Hardy’s Wessex topography. In the closing stanza, it joins Ingpen Beacon, Wylls-Neck, and Pilsdon as a remote place beyond ordinary social life.
Example
Example in poetry:
Hardy’s “Wessex Heights” names “homely Bulbarrow,” placing emotion in Dorset’s hill country; Bulbarrow is an Iron Age hillfort, so its name can suggest deep historical time; “From Bulbarrow, fields unroll toward the sea” uses elevated viewpoint and regional detail; A contemporary place poem can let Bulbarrow’s earthworks complicate ideas of home and belonging
Additional Notes
The quoted proper name identifies a relatively obscure Dorset location that readers may need to research.; Found in the poem, Wessex Heights by Thomas Hardy
Also Known As
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