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Crane

Birds
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 tall, long-legged wading bird associated with longevity, vigilance, and grace.

Detailed Definition
Cranes hold deep symbolic resonance across cultures—representing longevity in East Asia, vigilance in Greek myth, and spiritual ascension in Western poetry. Their elegant flight and haunting calls lend themselves to meditations on migration, memory, and transcendence. Poets like Yeats and Bashō invoke cranes to explore themes of time, transformation, and the soul’s journey, often positioning them as messengers between earth and sky or past and present.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Japanese haiku by Bashō, the crane symbolizes longevity and the elegance of seasonal change; W.B. Yeats uses the crane in “The Wild Swans at Coole” (though swans, cranes share symbolic space) to evoke timeless beauty and migratory mystery; In Chinese poetry, paired cranes represent marital fidelity and heavenly ascent; Contemporary poets reference sandhill cranes’ migration over Platte River as a natural spectacle embodying ancient rhythms and ecological fragility; The crane’s slow, deliberate movements inspire meditative verse on patience and grace; In war poetry, the crane may appear as a ghostly figure over battlefields, contrasting violence with serenity.
Additional Notes
Crane: Cranes carry profound mythological and symbolic weight across cultures—longevity and vigilance in East Asia, messengers of the gods in Greek myth, and emblems of grace or migration in Western poetry. Their loud, trumpeting calls and elegant flight make them powerful auditory and visual motifs. Poets may use cranes to evoke transcendence, seasonal cycles, or spiritual aspiration.
Also Known As
Sandhill Crane Whooping Crane Common Crane
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