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Mournful

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 expressing deep sorrow, especially for the deceased, conveyed through lamentation, somber imagery, and elegiac tone.

Detailed Definition
Mournful mood in poetry conveys dignified grief through elegiac tone, restrained imagery, and solemn cadence; it appears in funeral elegies, memorial verses, or laments—like Tennyson’s “In Memoriam”—where sorrow is shaped by ritual and reflection, honoring loss while seeking meaning in the face of mortality through poetic form.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “The Raven,” Poe’s speaker is mournful over eternal separation from Lenore; Emily Dickinson’s “After great pain, a formal feeling comes” describes mournful numbness; In “Fern Hill,” Dylan Thomas mourns lost youth with mournful nostalgia; Thomas Hardy’s “The Voice” expresses mournful yearning; Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” portrays mournful aging; In “Dover Beach,” Matthew Arnold laments a mournful world without faith.
Additional Notes
Mournful mood expresses sorrow, especially for the dead; signaled by elegiac meter, weeping imagery, and solemn tone—central to the elegy form; related to doleful, sorrowful, and disconsolate moods; often includes consolatory turns toward hope or memory.
Also Known As
Sorrowful Grieving Lamenting Sad Doleful Lugubrious Miserable dolfull Waesome dolorous Dreeven wailful woe-begone
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