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Dejected

Mood
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 mood of deep discouragement, sorrow, or low spirits, conveyed through somber diction, drooping rhythm, or imagery of abandonment or loss.

Detailed Definition
Dejected mood in poetry expresses defeated sorrow through slumped rhythm, dim imagery, and withdrawn diction; it appears in post-failure lyrics, exile verse, or confessional poetry—like Plath or Hardy—where the speaker’s spirit is bowed by loss or rejection, rendering emotional collapse with poignant honesty and vulnerable introspection.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “The Raven,” Poe’s speaker is dejected by the bird’s relentless “Nevermore”; Emily Dickinson’s “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” traces a descent into dejected mental collapse; In “Dover Beach,” Matthew Arnold laments a world stripped of joy and faith, leaving only dejection; Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” portrays a woman dejected by aging (“In me she has drowned a young girl”); In “Acquainted with the Night,” Robert Frost’s solitary walks reflect quiet dejection; Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush” contrasts a dejected landscape with a bird’s inexplicable song.
Additional Notes
Dejected mood expresses low spirits, often from loss or rejection; rendered through slow pacing, gray imagery, and sighing sounds; closely related to disconsolate, crestfallen, and forlorn moods; common in elegies or confessional poetry; distinct from despairing in its lingering hope.
Also Known As
Downhearted Discouraged Low-spirited Sad Melancholy Crestfallen
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