Home › Glossary › Letter G

Gift

Philosophy
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

The gift signifies unconditional giving without expectation of return. Philosophers like Derrida and Mauss explore its paradox: pure gift is impossible within exchange systems.

Detailed Definition
Poetry treats the gift as grace, inspiration, or unearned beauty—often fleeting or unreciprocated. Through metaphors of offering or unexpected grace, poems explore generosity beyond economy, framing art itself as a gift that disrupts calculation and opens ethical or spiritual possibility.
Example
Example in poetry:
W.S. Merwin’s “Thanks” addresses gratitude to unnamed givers; Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies treat poetry as gift from angels; Li-Young Lee’s “The Gift” recalls father’s healing as unearned grace; Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese” offers belonging as unconditional gift; Wallace Stevens’s “The Poems of Our Climate” describes blue as gift beyond desire; W.H. Auden’s “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” claims “poetry makes nothing happen” yet gives lasting voice.
Additional Notes
The gift (Mauss/Derrida) is unconditional giving that disrupts exchange economies. In poetry, it appears as grace, inspiration, or unearned beauty: Lee’s “The Gift,” Oliver’s “Wild Geese.” Derrida notes the pure gift is impossible (it becomes debt), yet poetry enacts its ideal. Students should track moments of gratuitous generosity. Related to end-in-itself, ethical demand, and sacrifice.
Also Known As
Le don Gift-giving The given
Skip to main content