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Encyclopedic poem

Genre
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

A long, ambitious poem that seeks to encompass vast knowledge, themes, or worldviews

Detailed Definition
Encyclopedic poem is an ambitious, expansive work that seeks to encompass vast domains of knowledge—scientific, historical, mythological, or personal—within a single poetic framework; exemplified by Pound’s “Cantos” or Merrill’s “The Changing Light at Sandover,” this genre blends erudition with lyricism, using fragmentation and allusion to map the interconnectedness of human experience across time and culture.
Example
Example in poetry:
Lucretius’s “De Rerum Natura” is an encyclopedic poem covering physics, ethics, and cosmology; Dante’s “Divine Comedy” functions as an encyclopedic poem mapping theology, politics, and history; Ezra Pound’s “The Cantos” is an encyclopedic poem weaving economics, myth, and personal memory; Derek Walcott’s “Omeros” serves as an encyclopedic poem linking Homeric epic with Caribbean history.
Additional Notes
Encyclopedic poem: A long, wide-ranging work attempting to catalog knowledge, history, or culture—like Ezra Pound’s Cantos.
Also Known As
Compendium poem Encyclopaedic verse Comprehensive poem
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