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moral verse

Genre
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

Poetry that explicitly instructs readers in virtue, duty, or proper behavior, typically through allegory, fable, or direct moralizing address.

Detailed Definition
moral verse: Poetry with explicit ethical instruction or moral content, aiming to teach virtuous behavior, warn against vice, or convey ethical principles. Moral verse spans from medieval exempla through Enlightenment didactic poetry to contemporary ethical verse. This tradition assumes poetry's capacity and obligation to improve readers morally, not merely entertain or express emotion. Understanding moral verse reveals historically dominant assumptions about poetry's social functions and shows tensions between didactic and aesthetic priorities that continue shaping debates about poetry's purposes and obligations toward audiences and society.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Bunyan’s verse adaptations of “The Pilgrim’s Progress” exemplify moral verse; Isaac Watts’ hymns serve as moral verse for Christian conduct; Emily Dickinson’s “Much Madness is divinest Sense” uses moral verse to invert societal norms; Contemporary poet Lucille Clifton’s “won’t you celebrate with me” functions as moral verse of self-affirmation; Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” uses moral verse to question boundaries; W.H. Auden’s “In Memory of W.B. Yeats” blends elegy and moral verse.
Additional Notes
Moral verse explicitly teaches ethical lessons or proper behavior. This didactic poetry aims to instruct readers in virtue, often employing clear examples and straightforward language to convey moral principles.
Also Known As
ethical verse moral teaching poem didactic stanza Apologue poem Fable verse Instructive verse Teaching poem
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