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Nowness

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

The poetic technique of capturing the immediacy and vividness of the present moment, often through sensory detail and temporal awareness.

Detailed Definition
Nowness in poetry refers to the intense evocation of the present moment, achieved through immediate sensory detail, present-tense verbs, and deictic language, creating a sense of urgency, presence, and lived experience for the reader.
Example
Example in poetry:
Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow” fixes attention on “now” of rain-glazed object; Bashō’s “Old pond” haiku exists in the instant of splash; Bishop’s “The Fish” renders the caught fish in present-tense detail; Heaney’s “Digging” moves from present pen to past memory and back to present resolve.
Additional Notes
Nowness emphasizes the present moment through tense, diction, or imagery; key in mindfulness-based and Imagist poetry—use present tense and concrete details to ground the reader in the immediate.
Also Known As
Present immediacy here-and-now lyric temporal presence current moment Immediacy
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