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Decorated ending

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 line ending enriched with ornamental language, imagery, or sound

Detailed Definition
A Decorated ending is a poetic line or stanza conclusion enriched with ornamental language, rhetorical flourish, or heightened imagery to create a resonant, memorable closure; this technique amplifies emotional impact and thematic emphasis, often using metaphor, alliteration, or syntactic inversion to lend ceremonial weight to the poem’s final moments.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Keats’s “Ode to a Nightingale,” the final stanza ends with “Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades...” decorated with emotional and sonic flourish; In Shelley’s “Ode to the West Wind,” the closing invocation “Be thou, Spirit fierce, / My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!” is a decorated ending; In Hopkins’s “The Windhover,” the final lines “My heart in hiding / Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!” offer a decorated, ecstatic close; In Neruda’s “Tonight I Can Write,” the last line “Love is so short, forgetting is so long” is a decorated ending through poignant simplicity.
Additional Notes
A Decorated ending uses ornate diction, rhetorical flourish, or emotional intensity to conclude a poem memorably; common in odes and elegies; should feel earned, not excessive—balance ornament with authenticity.
Also Known As
Ornate close embellished ending flourished finale rhetorical coda Decorated finale Ornate conclusion Ornate ending
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