Home › Glossary › Letter I

interpolated comment

Device
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

A parenthetical or digressive remark inserted mid-line or mid-stanza, offering commentary, irony, or supplementary insight.

Detailed Definition
An interpolated comment is a parenthetical or inserted remark within a poem that breaks from the main discourse to offer reflection, irony, or meta-commentary; this device creates distance, humor, or critical perspective, often signaling the poet’s self-awareness or challenging the poem’s own assumptions.
Example
Example in poetry:
Interpolated comment: in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” “(They will say: ‘How his hair is growing thin!’)” interrupts narrative; Shakespeare’s sonnets often insert asides: “(Yet do thy worst, old Time…)”; A modern poem: “She smiled—though I knew it was forced—”; Such comments create intimacy, irony, or psychological depth; They function like stage directions in lyric space.
Additional Notes
interpolated comment: A sudden insertion of a direct statement, opinion, or observation by the speaker or narrator into the middle of a description, narrative, or dialogue; serves to guide the reader's interpretation or inject a personal perspective.
Also Known As
inserted aside interpolated remark interjected comment digression Bracketed aside
Skip to main content