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Envy

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

Painful desire for another's qualities, possessions, or fortune.

Detailed Definition
Envy in poetry simmers through comparisons, bitter asides, and images of lack. It drives dramatic monologues and confessional lyrics, revealing the speaker's resentment and self-reproach. Poets explore envy's corrosive effects—on friendship, love, and identity—often linking it to social injustice or unfulfilled ambition. Envy complicates moral judgments, as its expression can be both petty and profoundly human, inviting empathy for flawed yearning.
Example
Example in poetry:
Envy in Mary Lamb's "Envy" explores jealousy; John Donne's "Elegy III: Change" features a jealous speaker; Humbert Wolfe's "A LOVER'S ENVY" envies flowers and birds that touch the beloved; "Envy / Side A, Side B" describes envying girls from wealthy neighborhoods; The poem "Longing" by Emily Dickinson envies seas, spokes, and hills; "ODE ON ENVY" describes envy dropping "the scalding tear."
Additional Notes
Envy in poetry simmers through comparisons, bitter asides, and images of lack, driving dramatic monologues and confessional lyrics that reveal resentment and self-reproach. Poets explore envy's corrosive effects—on friendship, love, and identity—often linking it to social injustice or unfulfilled ambition. In teaching, distinguish envy from jealousy: envy is desire for what another has, while jealousy involves fear of losing what one has. Envy complicates moral judgments, as its expression can be both petty and profoundly human. Students should analyze how poets use contrast, hyperbole, and apostrophe to convey envy's painful longing.
Also Known As
Jealousy resentment covetousness bitterness longing Invidia The grass is always greener
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