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Persona

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

Persona is the constructed voice, character, or mask through which a poet speaks in a poem, distinct from the author’s actual identity or beliefs.

Detailed Definition
Persona refers to the fictional speaker or voice adopted by a poet in a poem, distinct from the author’s real identity; this mask allows exploration of diverse perspectives, emotions, or social roles, as in Browning’s dramatic monologues where personas reveal psychological complexity through first-person narration.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” the Duke’s arrogant monologue reveals a persona masking cruelty with aristocratic charm; Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” adopts a theatrical, resurrected persona blending victimhood and defiance; Langston Hughes’s “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” uses a collective ancestral persona to claim historical depth; In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Eliot crafts a neurotic, indecisive persona emblematic of modern alienation; Contemporary poet Danez Smith uses a queer, Black persona in “not an elegy for Mike Brown” to channel communal grief and rage.
Additional Notes
Persona: A fictional speaker or voice adopted by the poet; allows exploration of perspectives beyond the self; central to dramatic monologues and mask poetry.
Also Known As
mask poem speaker Hyde Jekyll
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