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Gloomy

Mood
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 mood evoking sadness, melancholy, or ominous foreboding through dark or shadowed imagery and tone.

Detailed Definition
Gloomy mood in poetry creates an atmosphere of shadow, dread, or emotional heaviness, often using dim lighting, slow cadence, and somber diction; it appears in Gothic verse, elegies, or social critiques—such as Poe’s narratives or Hardy’s pessimistic lyrics—where the external world mirrors internal desolation, amplifying themes of isolation, decay, or inevitable sorrow.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “The Raven,” Poe’s speaker is enveloped in gloomy despair over lost Lenore; Emily Dickinson’s “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” conveys gloomy mental collapse; In “Dover Beach,” Matthew Arnold describes a gloomy world without joy or faith; Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips” renders a hospital as emotionally gloomy; Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush” opens with a gloomy winter landscape; In “The Waste Land,” T.S. Eliot paints gloomy urban and spiritual desolation.
Additional Notes
Gloomy mood evokes persistent sadness or darkness; signaled by shadowy imagery, minor tonality, and heavy rhythm—common in Gothic or introspective poetry; overlaps with somber, dismal, and melancholic moods; more atmospheric than emotional terms like sorrowful.
Also Known As
Dismal Dreary Somber Melancholy Depressing Bleak Brooding Lugubrious Melancholic Morose Sullen Donsie Dowie Chankly Overcast
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