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Contrary sense

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

A reversed interpretation opposed to the surface or literal sense.

Detailed Definition
Contrary sense describes a poetic technique where words or phrases convey meanings opposite to their literal or expected interpretation, often through irony, understatement, or contextual subversion; this method creates layers of meaning that challenge surface readings and invite reinterpretation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Contrary sense: “This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper” (Eliot); Dickinson’s “Much Madness is divinest Sense”; A poem titled “Blessing” that describes a curse; Auden’s “Stop all the clocks” uses funeral commands to express love; Irony, paradox, or inversion drives the poem’s emotional core.
Additional Notes
Contrary sense|The use of a word or phrase to mean the opposite of its literal or conventional meaning (irony), or the deployment of two opposing ideas simultaneously (paradox); a key rhetorical device.
Also Known As
Opposed meaning Reverse sense Antithetical reading Antiphrasis
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