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Temporal sonnet

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 sonnet whose form, imagery, or argument centers on the passage, paradox, or philosophy of time as its unifying thematic principle.

Detailed Definition
A temporal sonnet explores themes of time—memory, decay, anticipation—through structural or metrical manipulation, such as shifting tenses, anachronistic imagery, or volta placement that disrupts chronological flow; it uses the sonnet’s compact form to interrogate time’s passage.
Example
Example in poetry:
Temporal sonnet appears in Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73: “That time of year thou mayst in me behold,” mapping aging onto seasons; in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Time does not bring relief,” grief defies chronology; in Terrance Hayes’s “American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin,” time loops between threat and hope; in W.H. Auden’s “If I Could Tell You,” time’s uncertainty structures the sonnet; contemporary poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil uses sonnet form to compress ecological time in “Oceanic.”
Additional Notes
Temporal sonnet: A sonnet that interrogates or structures time—through tense shifts, historical layers, or cyclical imagery; often uses the volta to mark a temporal pivot.
Also Known As
Time sonnet Temporal fourteen-liner Chronological love poem Duration sonnet Historical sonnet
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