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compose

Verb
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

To calm or settle the mind or emotions, or to arrange parts into an ordered whole; also, to create or write a work.

Detailed Definition
In this poem, compose does not mean to write music or poetry. It has the older sense of calming or settling the mind, which fits the speaker’s wish to be soothed by the stars and waters.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Calm me, ah, compose me to the end!” uses compose as a verb meaning soothe, settle, or restore self-control; Milton’s “Sweetly did they float” shows how calm syntax can itself compose a scene; In an elegy, a speaker may ask music to compose the mind after loss; Contemporary usage can also mean to create a poem, allowing compose to suggest both emotional order and artistic making
Additional Notes
The quoted line uses compose in an older sense meaning 'calm' or 'settle,' which can be unfamiliar in modern reading.; Found in the poem, Self-Dependence by Matthew Arnold
Also Known As
create craft construct
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