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Sympathy

Psychology
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

An emotional response of care or sorrow for another’s suffering, often involving shared feeling rather than mere pity.

Detailed Definition
Sympathy maintains emotional distance, unlike empathy. In poetry, it appears through compassionate observation, third-person narration, or gentle lament, offering solidarity without full identification.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Mary Oliver’s “Wild Geese,” sympathy is offered gently to the weary soul; In Naomi Shihab Nye’s “Kindness,” sympathy is essential wisdom born from loss; In Wendell Berry’s “The Peace of Wild Things,” sympathy arises from shared vulnerability; In Lucille Clifton’s “blessing the boats,” sympathy flows as prayer; In Warsan Shire’s “For Women Who Are ‘Difficult’ to Love,” sympathy reclaims self-worth; In Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays,” sympathy emerges belatedly in a father’s labor.
Additional Notes
Sympathy—feeling for another—is distinct from empathy (feeling with); in poetry, it often appears as elegy or lament (Auden, Clifton); poetic techniques include apostrophe, elevated diction, or shared pronouns; students should consider whether sympathy empowers or patronizes; note its ethical dimension—sympathy as bridge or barrier.
Also Known As
Pity Compassion Fellow-feeling Concern
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