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Family comparison

Device
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 metaphor equating abstract ideas or emotions with kinship roles or domestic relationships

Detailed Definition
Family comparison is a poetic device that likens abstract concepts, natural phenomena, or social structures to familial relationships—such as calling the earth a “mother” or time a “father”—to evoke intimacy, continuity, or inherited duty; this anthropomorphic strategy grounds universal themes in relatable domestic roles, fostering emotional connection and ethical reflection.
Example
Example in poetry:
Shakespeare’s “father time” personifies time as a patriarch; In “The World Is Too Much With Us,” Wordsworth calls the sea “Proteus rising from the sea,” using sea-god as kin; Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death— / He kindly stopped for me” treats Death as a gentleman caller; In “Ode to the West Wind,” Shelley addresses the wind as “Destroyer and Preserver”
Additional Notes
Family comparison uses kinship terms (mother, brother) to convey intimacy or duty; common in devotional and political poetry; can universalize personal experience; avoid cliché by choosing unexpected familial roles
Also Known As
Kinship metaphor familial trope domestic analogy relational figure Kindred metaphor
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