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Prolepsis

Device
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

Anticipatory figure: representing a thing as existing before it actually does, or using a flash-forward.

Detailed Definition
Prolepsis is a rhetorical and narrative device in poetry where a future event, outcome, or realization is anticipated or foreshadowed within the present moment of the poem, creating dramatic irony, emotional tension, or thematic depth; unlike simple prediction, prolepsis often collapses temporal boundaries to suggest inevitability or fate, as in Shakespeare’s sonnets that address the beloved’s future betrayal, or in war poetry where the speaker’s present calm is shadowed by impending death.
Example
Example in poetry:
Prolepsis anticipates future regret: “You’ll miss this ordinary Tuesday / when time turns it to gold.”; Milton: “...and all his successors, down to the last / Of his perverted line.”; “Someday this coffee cup will be an artifact / in your museum of lost mornings.”
Additional Notes
Flash-forward or anticipatory reference in narrative. Temporal disruption foreshadowing future. Opposite of analepsis; study with narrative and prophetic verse.
Other Meanings of “Prolepsis”
Also Known As
anticipation flash-forward Anticipatory device forward reference proleptic phrase Proleptic Consciousness
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