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Short lament

Form
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 short poem expressing grief, sorrow, or mourning, typically focused on personal loss and marked by emotional brevity and intensity.

Detailed Definition
A short lament is a brief, emotionally direct poem of mourning or regret, often using simple diction and traditional forms to convey universal sorrow; Ben Jonson’s epitaphs, Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break,” and folk ballads like “Barbara Allen” achieve poignant impact through concision and rhythmic clarity.
Example
Example in poetry:
Jonson’s epitaph: “Rest in soft peace”; Dickinson: “As imperceptibly as Grief”; Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break”: “A four foot box, a foot for every year”; Larkin’s “This Be The Verse” ends with terse lament: “Get out as early as you can, / And don’t have any kids yourself”
Additional Notes
A short lament is a brief expression of sorrow, often under eight lines—focuses on emotional immediacy rather than narrative; appears in folk traditions, epitaphs, and contemporary minimalist poetry.
Also Known As
Brief elegy concise threnody miniature dirge succinct mourning verse brief complaint
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