Home › Glossary › Letter D

Dialectical opposites

Concept
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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

The use of contrasting ideas or images in tension to generate poetic meaning or philosophical insight

Detailed Definition
Dialectical opposites are paired concepts or images in poetry that generate tension through their contrast—such as light/dark, life/death, or reason/passion—yet remain interdependent; this Hegelian dynamic drives thematic development in works from Blake’s “contrary states” to modern ecopoetry, where opposition fuels synthesis or unresolved paradox.
Example
Example in poetry:
William Blake’s “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” juxtaposes contraries as necessary; W.B. Yeats’ “The Second Coming” balances order and chaos; Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck” explores gendered opposites; Rumi’s poetry unites lover/beloved, drunk/sober as dialectical pairs.
Additional Notes
Dialectical opposites present contrasting ideas (e.g., life/death, reason/passion) in tension to generate insight or synthesis; central to Romantic and Hegelian poetic thought.
Also Known As
Binary tension opposing forces antithetical pair dialectic contrast antithetical binaries dialectical pairs
Skip to main content