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Corunna

Battles
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 1809 British retreat and rearguard action in Spain during the Peninsular War, ending with Moore’s death.

Detailed Definition
Corunna was a tactical withdrawal that preserved the army but cost a beloved general. In poetry—famously in Charles Wolfe’s “The Burial of Sir John Moore”—it symbolizes dignified sacrifice and the loneliness of command, evoking themes of honor, memory, and the quiet heroism of retreat.
Example
Example in poetry:
Corunna, where Moore died repelling Soult in 1809, inspired Byron’s “Childe Harold” as noble sacrifice; A modern elegy might contrast Corunna’s cliffs with soldiers’ sea burials; In a dramatic lyric, a Highland piper plays over Moore’s grave at Corunna; A sonnet could frame Corunna as retreat dignified by discipline; Contemporary poets use Corunna to explore the cost of covering withdrawals; A free-verse poem might voice a Spanish guerrilla watching the British sail away.
Additional Notes
Corunna (1809) ended Sir John Moore’s campaign with his heroic death during retreat; immortalized in Charles Wolfe’s poem “The Burial of Sir John Moore,” it became a Romantic archetype of dignified sacrifice and the pathos of military withdrawal.
Also Known As
Battle of Corunna La Coruña
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