Home › Glossary › Letter L

locative echo

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

Repetition in poetry that underscores spatial orientation or location, anchoring imagery in physical or metaphorical place.

Detailed Definition
Locative echo is a poetic device where place names or spatial references reverberate thematically or sonically across a poem, creating a sense of geographic haunting or memory; it ties emotional states to specific locales, as in Seamus Heaney’s bog poems or Elizabeth Bishop’s Nova Scotia landscapes.
Example
Example in poetry:
locative echo (The use of place-specific names, terms, or descriptions that resonate throughout a poem, grounding it in a particular location); Repeated mentions of "Fleet Street," "Thames," and "fog" in a poem about London; Frequent recurrence of "mountain," "fjords," and "sea-mist" in a poem set in Norway
Additional Notes
locative echo: A recurring or resonant image, word, or phrase in a poem that specifically references and reinforces the physical setting or place (locus), creating a strong sense of spatial unity or memory.
Also Known As
Place echo Spatial resonance Locational reverberation Chronotopic refrain
Skip to main content