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Self-referential

Concept
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 work that intentionally refers to itself or its creation in its content

Detailed Definition
Self-referential poetry draws attention to its own status as language, text, or artifact, often questioning representation, authorship, or meaning-making; through meta-commentary or textual play, it foregrounds the constructed nature of verse, as in postmodern works that cite their own lines or genres.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Donne’s “The Canonization” refers to the poem itself as a monument to love—self-referential; Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 claims the verse grants immortality—self-referential; In “A Lecture Upon the Shadow,” Donne describes love’s stages through the lecture itself; Marianne Moore’s “Poetry” begins “I, too, dislike it,” commenting on poetry within poetry
Additional Notes
Self-referential: Describes a poetic element (word, phrase, theme, or the whole poem) that points to or comments on itself; also known as meta-poetry; draws attention to the artifice or construction of the poem.
Also Known As
Autoreferential self-alluding self-invoking Autological reflexive
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