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Canyon

Landscape
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 deep, steep-sided landform carved by a river over millennia; in poetry, a canyon symbolizes immense time, geological power, or the emotional and physical depths of a journey.

Detailed Definition
A canyon gives poetry dramatic scale through its walls of rock, shadowed floor, and winding watercourse. It can frame a speaker as small within geological time, surrounded by strata that record ancient change. Echoes, sunlit rims, and sudden darkness make the canyon useful for poems about isolation, passage, awe, or voices carried beyond sight.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The canyon kept the river’s green secret between its walls”; A canyon can frame sound and echo: “Each call returned from the canyon with a stranger’s voice”; Use its depth to convey time: “At the canyon floor, stone displayed centuries like pages”; A speaker may feel small within it: “I entered the canyon and became no larger than a seed”
Additional Notes
A canyon is usually carved over time by flowing water. Poets may use its depth, echoes, and shadowed walls to create scale, separation, or awe.
Other Meanings of “Canyon”
Also Known As
Gorge
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