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Darkling

Adverb
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

In darkness or in a darkened, uncertain manner. It has a strongly poetic and archaic flavor.

Detailed Definition
Darkling is a literary adverb associated with obscurity, night, inwardness, and imperfect knowledge. It often suggests more than physical darkness: a speaker may move darkling through grief, dream, memory, or doubt. Because the word is unusual in ordinary speech, it immediately heightens a poem's tone. It is especially effective in meditative or Gothic verse, where unseen forces, dim landscapes, and uncertain perception shape the emotional atmosphere.
Example
Example in poetry:
Keats writes, “Darkling I listen,” using the word to mean in darkness; The owl calls darkling from the woods beyond the field; Darkling, the speaker follows a path he cannot clearly see; Using “darkling” can give a nocturnal poem an archaic, mysterious atmosphere
Additional Notes
A poetic, archaic word that can suggest both literal darkness and uncertainty: “darkling I wandered.”
Other Meanings of “Darkling”
Also Known As
Darkly In darkness
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