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Evident proposition

Concept
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 poetic or rhetorical claim that presents itself as self-evident or obvious truth

Detailed Definition
An evident proposition is a poetic assertion presented as self-evident or universally true, often functioning as a rhetorical anchor or moral axiom; while common in didactic or neoclassical verse, modern poets may subvert it through irony, revealing how “truths” are culturally constructed rather than absolute.
Example
Example in poetry:
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130: “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun”—evident proposition rejecting Petrarchan cliché; Emily Dickinson’s “Tell all the truth but tell it slant”—evident proposition on poetic strategy; W.H. Auden’s “Poetry makes nothing happen”—evident proposition on art’s limits; Sylvia Plath’s “Dying / Is an art, like everything else”—evident proposition on performance; Claudia Rankine’s “You are in the dark, in the car”—evident proposition on racial vulnerability; Ocean Vuong’s “The most beautiful part of your body is where it’s headed”—evident proposition on futurity.
Additional Notes
A statement or idea presented in the poem that is immediately clear, obvious, or self-evident to the reader within the poem's context; useful for marking a moment of simple truth or undeniable fact.
Also Known As
Obvious proposition Stated claim Clear assertion Apophantic statement
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