Home › Glossary › Letter E

expanding correspondence

Rhyme
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

Rhyme scheme suggesting expansion or progression of sounds outward

Detailed Definition
Expanding correspondence describes a poetic technique where initial parallels between two entities—lover and landscape, self and season—gradually diverge or deepen into complex, evolving relationships; this dynamic mirroring avoids static metaphor, instead tracing how connections transform through time, conflict, or revelation.
Example
Example in poetry:
Emily Dickinson’s letters to Susan Gilbert show expanding correspondence between love and poetry; Walt Whitman’s letters to Peter Doyle expand poetic intimacy; Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop’s letters form expanding correspondence across decades; James Merrill and David Jackson’s “The Changing Light at Sandover” grew from séance correspondence; contemporary poets like Ocean Vuong and Danez Smith exchange letters as expanding correspondence; digital poets use email chains as expanding correspondence.
Additional Notes
A technique where the relationship or connection between elements (e.g., images, ideas, characters) in a poem is steadily broadened and deepened over the course of the work; builds thematic complexity.
Also Known As
Growing correspondence Expansive resonance Elaborated connection Centrifugal rhyme
Skip to main content