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secondhand burden

Structure
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 refrain not original to the poem’s speaker but incorporated nonetheless

Detailed Definition
A secondhand burden is a poetic motif or refrain borrowed from earlier literary or folk traditions and repurposed to convey inherited sorrow, obligation, or cultural memory; unlike original burdens, these carry intertextual weight, signaling the poet’s engagement with ancestral voices or collective trauma, as in allusions to biblical laments or ballad refrains.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Claudia Rankine’s "Citizen," the “secondhand burden” of racial microaggressions is carried through reported speech; Ocean Vuong’s “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong” bears the secondhand burden of inherited trauma; In “The Tradition,” Jericho Brown inherits the burden of Black suffering through historical allusion; Secondhand burden appears in Muriel Rukeyser’s “The Book of the Dead,” documenting others’ industrial suffering
Additional Notes
secondhand burden: Poetic theme where the speaker takes on the suffering, guilt, or emotional weight of another person or group; relates to vicarious experience or empathy; often seen in social or political poetry.
Also Known As
Borrowed burden secondhand refrain inherited weight Borrowed refrain
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