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Defensive response

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 reply structured to protect against critique or counterargument.

Detailed Definition
Defensive response in poetry is a stanza or passage that justifies, explains, or shields the speaker against real or imagined criticism, often adopting a tone of wounded pride, irony, or stoic resolve to assert integrity or perspective.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Audre Lorde’s “Power,” defensive response counters police violence with poetic testimony; In June Jordan’s “A Poem about My Rights,” defensive response asserts bodily autonomy against state control; In Claudia Rankine’s “Citizen,” defensive response documents everyday racism through lyric essay; In Danez Smith’s “not an elegy for Mike Brown,” defensive response rejects elegiac tradition for protest; In Safia Elhillo’s “Self-Portrait with No Flag,” defensive response navigates diasporic identity through bilingual code-switching.
Additional Notes
A Defensive response is a poem or section of a poem written specifically to justify the poet's choices, beliefs, or actions against real or perceived criticism; a type of apologia.
Also Known As
Poetic defense verse rebuttal rhetorical response protective reply Antapologia
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