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Opposite type

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

A poetic element defined primarily by its opposition to another—e.g., light vs. dark—serving as a structural or symbolic counterpoint.

Detailed Definition
Opposite type refers to a poetic persona, setting, or motif that deliberately inverts conventional archetypes—such as a nurturing monster or a peaceful battlefield—to subvert expectations, critique norms, or explore the fluidity of identity and perception.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poem that is written as a comedy when the expected form (e.g., an elegy) is for tragedy; A piece of high-brow, philosophical verse that is the inversion of a simple children's rhyme; A lyric that is entirely optimistic and light in response to a prompt for a dark, melancholic poem; A poem that presents a secular viewpoint as a counterpoint to a religious text;
Additional Notes
Opposite type: A poem that explicitly defines itself by being the reverse or contravention of a well-known genre or form; for example, an anti-ode that mocks the formality of a traditional ode.
Also Known As
contrary type opposing category inverse kind Antitype
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