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Reverse echo

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

A repetition technique where a phrase or line is echoed in reverse word order, creating palindromic or mirrored structural effects.

Detailed Definition
Reverse echo is a poetic device in which a word, phrase, or sound from a later line is anticipated or faintly echoed in an earlier line, subverting the conventional forward progression of echoic repetition; this technique creates a sense of temporal looping or premonition, enhancing thematic depth by suggesting that the conclusion is already latent within the poem’s opening gestures.
Example
Example in poetry:
A figure where a sound or word from the end of a line is echoed, or slightly varied, at the beginning of the immediately preceding line; for example: "The wind whispered cold, / A cold mind pondered truth." (The second word, mind, echoes wind in the previous line's end.); A line ends with the word "darkness," and the line before it ends with "starkness," creating a subtle, reversed sonic echo.; The end-word of line 4 is "see," and the end-word of line 3 is "me," a perfect reverse echo of sound and half-rhyme.; A poem where the last word of line N is a monosyllable, and the last word of line N-1 is a near-rhyme, two-syllable word ending in that monosyllable.
Additional Notes
A repetition of a phrase or line where the second appearance is the exact opposite (in meaning or structure) of the first, creating a sharp contrast or a rhetorical flourish; related to antistrophe.
Also Known As
Echo in reverse backward echo reverse reply Antistrophic echo
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