Home › Glossary › Letter E

Elliptical voice

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

A poetic persona that communicates indirectly through implication, gaps, or understatement, requiring the reader to infer meaning from absence.

Detailed Definition
Elliptical voice is a poetic persona characterized by indirection, syntactic omission, and strategic ambiguity, often avoiding direct statement in favor of suggestion, allusion, or coded language; associated with poets like Jorie Graham or Mark Strand, this voice reflects contemporary anxieties about communication, truth, and subjectivity, requiring readers to navigate gaps and interpretive silences as integral to meaning.
Example
Example in poetry:
Emily Dickinson’s elliptical voice omits subjects/verbs (“After great pain, a formal feeling comes”); Jorie Graham’s “Erosion” uses fragmented syntax for philosophical inquiry; elliptical voice implies more than it states; modern example: Lucie Brock-Broido’s “The Master Letters” employs cryptic address; this technique demands active reading; it conveys trauma or transcendence through gaps.
Additional Notes
Elliptical voice omits logical connectors or explicit context, demanding active reader interpretation; associated with poets like Jorie Graham—prioritize implication over exposition.
Also Known As
Compressed voice Abbreviated perspective Condensed speaker Truncated persona
Skip to main content