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Possessed

Folklore
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 person overtaken by an external spirit or demon, losing control of body and will, often requiring exorcism or ritual cleansing.

Detailed Definition
Possessed in poetry represents the loss of self to forces beyond comprehension. They appear in religious and psychological verse as vessels of terror—where the voice is not one’s own, and the body is a stage for ancient, hungry things.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Macbeth, Banquo’s ghost is possessed by guilt: “Thou canst not say I did it; never shake / Thy gory locks at me”; in Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the mariner is possessed by the curse of the dead albatross; in Keats’ “Lamia,” the knight is possessed by the vision of beauty; in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” the heart’s beat is a possession of conscience; in Sylvia Plath’s “Lady Lazarus,” the speaker is possessed by the cycle of death and resurrection; in Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess,” the duke is possessed by the need to control.
Additional Notes
Possessed describes a person overtaken by an external spirit or demon, losing control of body and will—often requiring exorcism. In folklore, possession was a diagnosis for mental illness, epilepsy, or female rebellion. In poetry, it represents loss of agency, the invasion of the self, or the voice of the repressed. Poets use it to explore trauma, dissociation, and the struggle for autonomy.
Also Known As
Demonized Haunted
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