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Lung

Anatomy
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

An organ of breathing, often used to evoke air, speech, vulnerability, and the exchange between body and world.

Detailed Definition
Poetic images of lungs emphasize the body's continual exchange with its environment. Every breath draws the outer world inward, so lungs can connect personal life to weather, smoke, illness, forests, cities, and pollution. A poem may portray lungs filling with cold air, ash, music, or grief to make invisible conditions felt. Because lungs enable breath and voice, they also become metaphors for language itself: a poem can seem to inhale, pause, and release.
Example
Example in poetry:
“I am the master of my fate” from Henley’s “Invictus” gains force from the poem’s struggle to breathe through suffering; “The lungs of the city” can refer metaphorically to parks, trees, or open green space; A poet might write “smoke filled the lungs of morning” to make pollution feel invasive; “Her lungs lifted the song into the rafters” connects breath with the physical source of voice
Additional Notes
Lungs emphasize the body’s exchange with its surroundings: air enters, leaves, and sustains. They are especially effective in poems about illness, pollution, panic, singing, drowning, or environmental dependence.
Also Known As
Pulmonary Organ
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