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Flowering close

Structure
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 poem ending that culminates in elaborate or expansive expression

Detailed Definition
A poetically elaborate conclusion that employs rich imagery, elevated diction, or ornate language to create a sense of culmination and aesthetic completion. This technique provides satisfying closure through linguistic beauty and complexity, common in formal verse traditions where the ending represents the full flowering of themes and images developed throughout the poem, creating a memorable final impression that should feel earned through the composition's development rather than arbitrarily appended.
Example
Example in poetry:
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 concludes with a flowering close: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”; In Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish,” the epiphany blooms into a “rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!”; Rumi’s ghazals often end with a divine flowering close merging lover and Beloved; Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese” closes with expansive natural imagery that blossoms into belonging: “the world offers itself to your imagination”; In Derek Walcott’s “Love After Love,” the flowering close invites self-reunion: “Feast on your life”; Tracy K. Smith’s “The United States Welcomes You” ends with a chilling, ironic flowering close that subverts expectation.
Additional Notes
Provides sense of culmination and completion. Should feel earned through poem's development. Common in formal verse and odes. Can create memorable final impression.
Also Known As
Elaborate ending Ornate conclusion Decorated finale Baroque resolution Efflorescent Cadence
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