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Face

Anatomy
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

The front of the head, associated with identity, expression, recognition, and public presence.

Detailed Definition
A face in poetry can be a map of emotion, age, history, or social expectation. It may be remembered in fragments, obscured by shadow, altered by grief, or reflected in a mirror. Because faces allow recognition, they often carry themes of intimacy and estrangement: a speaker may search for a lost face, wear a masklike face, or discover an ancestor's features in their own. Poets use facial detail to make abstract feeling immediate and human.
Example
Example in poetry:
“The face that launched a thousand ships” from Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus shows how a face can become an emblem of beauty and conflict; “A face in every window” can create an atmosphere of surveillance or longing; A poet might write “rain revised the face of the road” to use face for a visible surface; “His face was a map of weather” can reveal emotion through changing expression
Additional Notes
The face is a public surface where private feeling becomes visible. Masks, turned faces, and unfamiliar reflections can explore identity, shame, aging, social roles, or the gap between appearance and self.
Also Known As
Visage Countenance Come to grips with
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