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Counter-defense

Device
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 rhetorical technique where a speaker responds to or counters expected opposition.

Detailed Definition
Counter-defense in poetry refers to a responsive stanza or passage that directly addresses and rebuts a perceived attack, criticism, or challenge—either real or imagined—often adopting a tone of justification, indignation, or irony; it functions as a subgenre of polemical verse, reinforcing the speaker’s stance through strategic rebuttal.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Audre Lorde’s “A Litany for Survival,” “we were never meant to survive” becomes counter-defense against systemic erasure; In June Jordan’s “Poem for South African Women,” “We are the ones we have been waiting for” asserts counter-defense through collective agency; In Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen,” documenting microaggressions functions as counter-defense against gaslighting; In Ocean Vuong’s “Telemachus,” mythic framing offers counter-defense against personal grief; In Layli Long Soldier’s “Whereas,” legal language is repurposed as counter-defense to U.S. policy.
Additional Notes
Counter-defense is a poetic technique where a perceived flaw or weakness in the poet's argument or subject is addressed preemptively to strengthen the overall case; a type of procatalepsis.
Also Known As
Response defense Poetic reply Retort in verse Antapologia
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