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Terror

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

Extreme, overwhelming fear, often of an existential or cosmic nature; in poetry, terror transcends mere fright, plunging the speaker into a state of paralysis, awe, or confrontation with the sublime.

Explore this topic in depth (1)

Gothic Poetry — Gothic poetry turns shadows, ruins, storms and supernatural suggestion into ways of exploring human fear, longing, guilt and uncertainty. More than a collection of frightening images, it is a flexible tradition concerned with what reason cannot comfortably explain.

Detailed Definition
Terror in poetry ascends to the sublime—vastness, death, divine wrath. It appears in Gothic, apocalyptic, and war verse, with images of abyss, storm, or monstrous shadows. Poets use terror to confront the limits of human control and comprehension. Terror invites awe, dread, and catharsis, as in Burke's sublime. It can be purifying or annihilating, making the poem a space for facing the overwhelming and finding meaning in the abyss.
Example
Example in poetry:
Terror in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Conqueror Worm" where terror is a theme; In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Christabel," terror is a Gothic trope; In W.H. Auden's "They," terror is existential; In contemporary horror poetry, terror is a genre; In "The Waste Land," terror is a theme; In Gothic poetry, terror is a key element.
Additional Notes
Terror in poetry ascends to the sublime—vastness, death, divine wrath—appearing in Gothic, apocalyptic, and war verse with images of abyss, storm, or monstrous shadows. In teaching, distinguish terror from horror: terror is overwhelming fear, while horror is revulsive fear. Terror confronts limits of control and comprehension, inviting awe and catharsis. It can be purifying or annihilating. Students should examine how poets use imagery of vastness, darkness, and power, along with awe-struck tones, to convey terror's sublime, overwhelming force.
Also Known As
Dread horror fear panic awe Fright Nightmare
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