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God

Literary Character
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

Supreme being in monotheistic traditions, often addressed in devotional poetry

Detailed Definition
God appears in literature as creator, judge, and beloved, from the Psalms to Rilke’s "Duino Elegies," embodying ultimate mystery and moral authority. In poetry, God symbolizes the ineffable, the source of awe and terror, and the focal point of spiritual longing, doubt, or rebellion across religious and secular verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
God in Rilke’s "Duino Elegies" is an absent, yearned-for presence shaping human longing; In medieval hymns (e.g., by Hildegard), God is a radiant, speaking character; Milton’s "Paradise Lost" gives God a dramatic voice of cosmic authority; Modern poets (e.g., Celan) confront God as a silent or broken character in post-Holocaust verse.
Additional Notes
God, as a literary character in poetry, ranges from the intimate addressee in metaphysical verse (e.g., Herbert) to the absent or silent force in modernist and post-Holocaust poetry (e.g., Celan); studying divine persona reveals how theology, doubt, and addressivity shape poetic voice across traditions.
Also Known As
The Almighty The Divine The Lord Allah Deva Gawd
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