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Morose

Mood
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

A mood marked by persistent gloom, sullenness, and a sour or ill-tempered disposition.

Detailed Definition
Morose mood in poetry conveys a brooding, almost resentful sadness through heavy diction, dark imagery, and slow pacing; it appears in misanthropic verse or pessimistic meditations—like some of Hardy or early Eliot—where the world is seen through a lens of bitterness, revealing the poet’s disillusionment with human nature or fate.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “The Raven,” Poe’s speaker is morose in his fixation on lost Lenore; Emily Dickinson’s “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” conveys morose mental descent; In “Dover Beach,” Matthew Arnold laments with morose despair; Sylvia Plath’s “Tulips” portrays morose hospital isolation; Thomas Hardy’s “The Voice” expresses morose longing; In “The Hollow Men,” T.S. Eliot presents morose spiritual emptiness.
Additional Notes
Morose mood suggests sullen gloom or ill temper; conveyed through curt syntax, dark imagery, and bitter diction—e.g., misanthropic speakers; overlaps with grim, sullen, and somber moods; distinct from melancholic in its lack of introspective beauty.
Also Known As
Gloomy Sullen Grumpy Sour Ill-humored
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