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press

Craft Terms
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

Press means to apply force or flatten something; in poetry, it can suggest insistence, compression, or the shaping of language under pressure.

Detailed Definition
Literally, press describes the act of forcing one surface against another or flattening material. In poetry, it may indicate emotional pressure, formal compression, or the idea of words being worked into shape. It belongs to craft terms because it evokes physical shaping and disciplined making.
Example
Example in poetry:
A poet may describe pressing flowers between book pages as an image of preserving fleeting memory; Pressing grapes into wine can serve as metaphor for transforming raw experience into art; A poem about grief might describe the pressing weight of absence on the chest; Printing presses appear in poems about the power and permanence of the written word; A poet describing an embrace might use pressing close together to convey intimacy; Pressed wildflowers in an old letter can anchor a poem about a distant or lost relationship.
Additional Notes
Press suggests both physical force and figurative insistence, often used to describe compression of meaning or emotion within tight poetic forms; the term is closely associated with printing presses and the permanence of the written word, and instructors might explore how pressing imagery, such as pressed flowers preserved between book pages, connects the physical act of preservation to poetry's own function as a means of preserving fleeting experience.
Other Meanings of “press”
Also Known As
compress flatten iron squeeze Clothes Press Cupboard Linen Press
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