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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
An elaborate, often intellectually surprising extended metaphor that governs a poem’s logic, imagery, and emotional trajectory.
Explore this topic in depth (3)
Metaphysical Poetry
— Metaphysical poetry brings love, faith, science, death and the body into unusually close contact. Its poets—especially John Donne, George Herbert and Andrew Marvell—make poems that think aloud, argue fiercely and discover emotional force in surprising comparisons.
Renaissance Poetry
— Renaissance poetry emerged from a changing world of classical learning, print, religious conflict, court culture and global exploration. Its poems often sound intensely personal, yet they are also highly crafted performances shaped by inherited forms, rhetorical skill and music.
Love Poetry
— From the courtly conventions of the troubadours to the plain-spoken intimacy of modern verse, love poetry has never stopped changing shape. This guide traces its history and offers practical ways to read it closely.
Detailed Definition
A conceit is an extended, elaborate metaphor linking seemingly dissimilar things, often intellectually complex; central to metaphysical poetry (Donne’s compasses), it unites emotion and argument, transforming abstract ideas into vivid, surprising imagery.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Donne’s compass conceit: “Our two souls therefore, which are one, / Though I must go, endurenot yet / A breach, but an expansion”; Shakespeare’s sun conceit in Sonnet 1: “From fairest creatures we desire increase”; Modern: “My love is Wi-Fi—ubiquitous, invisible, essential”; Baroque conceit: “Her eyes are like galaxies, I orbit lost”; Eco-conceit: “You’re my coral reef—fragile, vital, dying.”
Additional Notes
Conceit is an extended, often surprising metaphor that links seemingly unlike things (e.g., lovers as compass legs); metaphysical poets like Donne used “heterogeneous ideas yoked by violence together” (Johnson) for intellectual and emotional impact.