Home › Glossary › Letter C

Crisis lyric

Genre
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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 lyric poem that confronts moments of personal, societal, or historical crisis with emotional and thematic urgency.

Detailed Definition
A crisis lyric captures the immediacy of personal or historical upheaval through fragmented syntax, urgent diction, and emotional rawness; it often eschews formal polish for authenticity, functioning as poetic testimony in moments of rupture or transformation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Crisis lyric: Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” exemplifies a crisis lyric, channeling personal trauma into urgent, emotionally charged verse that confronts psychological and historical turmoil.
Additional Notes
Crisis lyric is a poem that responds to personal, social, or political upheaval, often blending emotional intensity with reflective insight; it overlaps with confessional poetry but emphasizes urgency and transformation during moments of rupture.
Also Known As
Turning-point lyric Climactic lyric Pivotal poem Decisive verse
Skip to main content