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material

Concept
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

Pertaining to physical substance or the corporeal world in poetic expression

Detailed Definition
In poetry, “material” refers to content rooted in the physical, tangible world—objects, substances, textures, and sensory experiences—rather than abstract ideas or emotions; material poetry grounds its themes in concrete reality, using physicality as a lens for deeper exploration.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “The Red Wheelbarrow,” Williams focuses on a physical object to convey dependence; In “This Is Just To Say,” the plums are material and sensory; In “Fog,” Sandburg’s cat-foot fog is physical; In “The Fish,” Bishop details scales, skin, and hooks with material precision.
Additional Notes
The material is the concrete, bodily, or physical dimension of a poem: objects, textures, labor, landscape, flesh, tools, and sensory particulars. It contrasts with the abstract, conceptual, spiritual, or ideal, though poems often make ideas tangible through material imagery. Compare imagery, embodiment, and abstraction. Study hint: underline nouns that can be seen or touched, then ask how those details carry the poem’s larger argument.
Also Known As
Substance Matter Tangible presence Concrete
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