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Distress

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

Extreme anxiety, sorrow, or pain; a state of physical or emotional suffering.

Detailed Definition
Distress in poetry is raw, immediate, and often embodied through physical symptoms—gasping, trembling, tears. Poets convey it through urgent meter, harsh consonance, and imagery of wound or burden. Distress drives elegy, protest, and personal lament, giving voice to marginalized experiences. It challenges readers to witness suffering without consolation, affirming the power of poetry to bear witness and foster empathy.
Example
Example in poetry:
Distress in "Distress" from Poems (Taggart) describes misery's unpolished truth; Gabriela Mistral's "Tiny Feet" expresses a child's suffering through cold feet; Wordsworth's "Elegiac Stanzas" references "deep distress"; Hopkins' "No worst, there is none" creates a landscape of desolation; Delmore Schwartz's "Baudelaire" depicts the poet's poverty and depression; Refugee poetry explores the distress of mothers and children fleeing war.
Additional Notes
Distress in poetry is raw, immediate, and often embodied through physical symptoms—gasping, trembling, tears. Poets convey distress through urgent meter, harsh consonance, and imagery of wound or burden. In teaching, distinguish distress from depression: distress is acute suffering, while depression is a chronic state. Distress drives elegy, protest, and personal lament, giving voice to marginalized experiences. It challenges readers to witness suffering without consolation, affirming the power of poetry to bear witness and foster empathy. Students should examine how physical imagery and bodily sensation convey distress.
Also Known As
Anguish agony suffering pain affliction Dismay Trauma
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