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Ecphonesis

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

An exclamatory interjection or impassioned outburst in verse (e.g., “O woe!”), used to convey intense emotion or rhetorical urgency.

Detailed Definition
Ecphonesis is an exclamatory rhetorical device (e.g., “O Death!”) that interrupts narrative flow with emotional outburst; in poetry, ecphonesis heightens drama and subjectivity, common in odes, elegies, and dramatic monologues where apostrophe channels grief, awe, or protest, as in John Donne’s holy sonnets or the impassioned cries of Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself.”
Example
Example in poetry:
Ecphonesis: "O tempora! O mores! (Cicero’s exclamation)"; "Alas! What shall I do?"; "O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being!"; "Emotional outburst breaking narrative flow"; "Rhetorical cry: 'Woe is me!' in dramatic context"
Additional Notes
Greek rhetorical device: an emotional exclamation or outcry (e.g., "O!," "Alas!"). Common in high style poetry for emphasizing strong feeling. Related to apostrophe but specifically involves exclamatory utterance. Study Milton and Greek tragedy.
Also Known As
Exclamation emotional outcry Exclamatio
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