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Depression

Psychology
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

Persistent sadness, emptiness, or loss of interest, often with physical and cognitive effects.

Detailed Definition
Depression pervades poetry as a felt weight—gray skies, heavy limbs, stalled time. Poets convey it through flat affect, monotonous rhythms, and imagery of drowning or numbness. From the melancholic tradition to contemporary confessional verse, depression becomes a lens for examining despair, isolation, and the struggle for meaning, offering readers cathartic recognition and a language for ineffable suffering.
Example
Example in poetry:
Depression in Sylvia Plath's "The Moon and the Yew Tree" describes depression through natural imagery; Gerard Manley Hopkins' "No worst, there is none" captures depression's highs and lows; Elizabeth Jennings' "What Depression Feels Like" depicts a woman negligent about her appearance and surroundings; Tennyson's "Mariana" explores longing, isolation, and despair; John Clare's poetry expresses intense longing for escape from depression; Dante Gabriel Rossetti's "The Woodspurge" describes heightened perception during psychic stress.
Additional Notes
Depression pervades poetry as a felt weight—gray skies, heavy limbs, stalled time—conveyed through flat affect, monotonous rhythms, and imagery of drowning or numbness. From the melancholic tradition to contemporary confessional verse, depression becomes a lens for examining despair, isolation, and the struggle for meaning. In teaching, distinguish depression from sadness: sadness is a temporary emotion, while depression is a persistent state affecting cognition and physical function. Poets often use seasonal imagery, especially winter or autumn, to externalize depression. Encourage students to examine how form—short lines, sparse language—mirrors depressive constriction.
Other Meanings of “Depression”
Also Known As
Melancholy sadness gloom dejection despair Melancholia Basin
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