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conversational language

Sound
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

Language in poetry that imitates the rhythms and vocabulary of ordinary speech

Detailed Definition
Conversational language in poetry employs the rhythms, diction, and syntax of everyday speech to create intimacy, immediacy, and authenticity; favored by modern and contemporary poets like Frost or Bishop, this approach demystifies poetic expression, using colloquialisms, contractions, and natural phrasing to bridge the gap between poet and reader through accessible, human-centered utterance.
Example
Example in poetry:
Frank O’Hara’s “Having a Coke with You” uses conversational language: “you are more beautiful than Verona”; In Philip Larkin’s “This Be The Verse,” the opening “They fuck you up, your mum and dad” employs conversational language; Billy Collins’s “Introduction to Poetry” uses conversational language to demystify reading: “I ask them to take a poem / and hold it up to the light”; In Gwendolyn Brooks’s “We Real Cool,” the vernacular “We / Left school” uses conversational language.
Additional Notes
conversational language: Everyday casual speech incorporated into verse; helps poems sound natural and approachable.
Also Known As
Colloquial language Everyday speech Plain diction Colloquialism
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