Home › Glossary › Letter P

Poetic catalog

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

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

An extended list or enumeration used for rhetorical or thematic effect

Detailed Definition
A poetic catalog is an extended list of persons, places, objects, or qualities used to evoke abundance, democracy, or cosmic order; Homer’s “Catalog of Ships,” Whitman’s enumerations of American workers, and Ashbery’s inventories of imagined scenes all use this technique to create immersive, accumulative texture.
Example
Example in poetry:
Whitman’s “Song of Myself” catalogs American types: “The carpenter dresses his plank... the married and unmarried children ride home”; Homer’s “Iliad” lists ships and warriors in the Catalog of Ships; Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene” catalogs virtues and vices; Ashbery’s “The Instruction Manual” catalogs imagined Guatemalan scenes
Additional Notes
A poetic catalog lists people, objects, or ideas for cumulative effect—originates in Homeric epic (e.g., “Catalog of Ships”) and appears in Whitman’s enumerative style; builds rhythm and inclusivity.
Also Known As
Lyrical inventory poetic listing enumerative verse catalogic sequence Methodical listing Organized enumeration Poetic inventory
Skip to main content