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self-reflexive verse

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

Verse that reflects directly on its creation, nature, or structure

Detailed Definition
Self-reflexive verse continually examines its own methods, assumptions, or limitations, using poetic language to interrogate poetry itself; it often blurs creator and creation, as in works that describe their own making or question the efficacy of metaphor, aligning with postmodern and theoretical concerns.
Example
Example in poetry:
John Ashbery’s “Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror” is self-reflexive verse analyzing its own creation; In “Ars Poetica,” Archibald MacLeish writes “A poem should not mean / But be”—self-reflexive verse; Marianne Moore’s “Poetry” critiques the art form within the poem; Wallace Stevens’s “Not Ideas About the Thing But the Thing Itself” reflects on poetic representation
Additional Notes
self-reflexive verse: Poetry that is concerned with its own nature, form, and the process of writing; fundamentally about poetry itself, the poet's role, or the act of reading; synonymous with meta-poetry.
Also Known As
Autoreflexive verse mirrorlike poetry self-conscious poem Writing study
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