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finish

Craft Terms
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

Finish means to complete or put the final surface on something; in poetry, it can suggest closure, polish, or the final shaping of a poem.

Detailed Definition
Literally, finish refers to completing a work or giving it a smooth final treatment. In poetry, it may describe the last stage of composition, when a poem gains clarity, texture, or final effect. It belongs to craft language because poems are often imagined as made objects that require finishing.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poet may finish a poem with a striking final image that recontextualizes everything before it; The finish of a sonnet's closing couplet often delivers the poem's turn or resolution; A craftsman's careful finish on furniture can serve as metaphor for a poet's polished final draft; A poem about a race might describe crossing the finish line as a metaphor for completing a life's work; Poets sometimes leave a poem deliberately unfinished to mirror an unresolved emotional state; A varnished finish on wood can symbolize how time and care transform raw material into art.
Additional Notes
Finish refers to both the completion of a poem and the final surface treatment applied to a crafted object, making it a useful term for discussing closure, resolution, and polish in poetic composition; instructors often distinguish between poems that achieve a satisfying finish through clear resolution and those that deliberately resist finishing, leaving the reader with ambiguity or open-endedness; the term is also relevant to discussions of craftsmanship more broadly, since a poem's finish, like a piece of furniture's, reflects the care and skill invested in its final stages of creation.
Other Meanings of “finish”
Also Known As
complete polish refine surface
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