Home › Glossary › Letter M

Mental conflict

Concept
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

Internal psychological struggle dramatized through poetic voice, imagery, or narrative to convey emotional or moral tension.

Detailed Definition
Mental conflict in poetry dramatizes inner psychological struggle—between desire and duty, reason and passion, or self and society—through dialogue, metaphor, or fragmented syntax; it reveals the speaker’s turmoil, as in dramatic monologues or confessional lyrics.
Example
Example in poetry:
Mental conflict (A poem focusing on an internal struggle, dilemma, or battle of wills within the speaker's mind); A poem that explicitly weighs two opposing courses of action; A poem structured as a dialogue between two aspects of the self (e.g., Reason vs. Passion)
Additional Notes
A state of internal struggle, contradiction, or unresolved tension expressed by the speaker in a poem; a key source of dramatic tension in lyric poetry; related to dissonance or internal monologue.
Also Known As
Inner conflict psychic strife poetic discord Cognitive dissonance
Skip to main content