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haggard

Adjective
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

Looking exhausted, wild, and drawn from suffering, hunger, or anxiety; commonly used in Gothic or dramatic verse to portray distress.

Detailed Definition
This adjective is still understood, but in poetry it often carries a stronger sense of exhaustion and hardship. Here it helps describe the knight as physically and emotionally drained.
Example
Example in poetry:
Keats asks, “O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, / So haggard and so woe-begone?” linking haggard to exhaustion and distress; A haggard face appears worn, gaunt, or unkempt after illness, grief, sleeplessness, or hardship; “She came home haggard from the night shift” gives the adjective a contemporary social context; In a war poem, “haggard survivors crossed the field” conveys both physical depletion and emotional shock
Additional Notes
The word in “So haggard” is a literary descriptor that may be less familiar in its older, more intense sense.; Found in the poem, La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad by John Keats
Also Known As
worn gaunt weary emaciated
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