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Truism

Rhetorical Devices
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 statement that expresses an obvious or widely accepted truth. In poetry, it may sound sincere, conventional, or ironic.

Detailed Definition
A truism presents an idea so familiar that it seems beyond dispute, such as “time changes everything.” Poets may use truisms as shared points of entry before complicating them with particular experience. A conventional saying can provide comfort, establish a communal voice, or reveal a speaker’s reliance on easy wisdom. When used ironically, it exposes the inadequacy of general phrases in the face of pain, injustice, or individual loss. Its rhetorical power lies in its recognizability.
Example
Example in poetry:
“All that lives must die” states a familiar truth about mortality in a compact poetic form; “After rain, the earth remembers how to bloom” turns the truism that hardship passes into a hopeful image; “Time heals what tears have torn” uses a common truth as the closing wisdom of a lyric; “No winter lasts forever” offers a simple truism that can comfort a speaker in despair; “We cannot hold the river still” expresses the familiar truth that change cannot be stopped
Additional Notes
A truism states something so familiar that it may seem unquestionable, such as “time heals all wounds.” Poets can use truisms sincerely as shared wisdom, revise them to challenge convention, or place them in ironic context so their simplicity becomes unsettling. Notice whether the poem endorses the statement, complicates it, or exposes its limits.
Also Known As
Platitude Commonplace
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