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Ironizing turn

Device
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 turn or shift in a poem that retrospectively casts earlier statements in an ironic light, revealing hidden contradiction or complexity.

Detailed Definition
An ironizing turn is a strategic shift in tone, diction, or perspective that undercuts the literal meaning of earlier lines, exposing hidden contradictions or satirical intent and deepening the poem’s layered complexity.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” Keats’s turn from description to “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” ironizes the urn’s silence; In Plath’s “Lady Lazarus,” the shift to “I am your opus…” mocks artistic exploitation; In Eliot’s “The Hollow Men,” the nursery-rhyme turn undercuts apocalyptic vision; In Donne’s “The Canonization,” the turn to sainthood satirizes worldly love.
Additional Notes
An ironizing turn reframes earlier statements with irony; common in Romantic and modern poetry; often coincides with the volta in sonnets.
Also Known As
Ironic reframing Subversive turn Meaning-inverting shift Ironizing volta
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