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Opposition

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 placement of two concepts, images, or structures in sharp difference.

Detailed Definition
Opposition in poetry denotes the strategic use of contrast—between ideas, images, sounds, or forms—to generate tension, highlight conflict, or provoke thought, serving as a fundamental rhetorical and structural principle across lyric, narrative, and dramatic modes.
Example
Example in poetry:
The tension between idealism and reality in a Romantic poem; The clash between the speaker's desire and the world's constraint; The juxtaposition of natural imagery with urban decay; The use of an epigrammatic couplet that contradicts the previous stanzas;
Additional Notes
Opposition: The use of contrasting or conflicting ideas, images, themes, or structures in a poem; a fundamental driver of conflict and tension in literature; related to antithesis and juxtaposition.
Also Known As
contrast antagonism Antithesis Resistance
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