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Vexed

Mood
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

Vexed describes a mood of agitation, frustration, or perplexity, often reflected in tense syntax or conflicted imagery.

Detailed Definition
Vexed mood in poetry conveys irritated confusion through uneven rhythm, frustrated diction, and ambiguous imagery; it appears in dilemma poems, social satires, or introspective lyrics—like Donne or Larkin—where the speaker grapples with irresolvable questions, using linguistic tension to mirror the discomfort of uncertainty, moral conflict, or the gap between desire and reality.
Example
Example in poetry:
In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the speaker is vexed by indecision and aging; In “The Raven,” Poe’s speaker is vexed by the bird’s relentless “Nevermore”; Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” expresses vexed rage through Holocaust imagery; Emily Dickinson’s “I felt a Funeral, in my Brain” conveys vexed mental collapse; In “The Waste Land,” T.S. Eliot’s fragmented scenes vex with modern disarray; In “Howl,” Ginsberg’s societal collapse vexes with frantic energy.
Additional Notes
Vexed mood denotes irritated frustration or perplexity; conveyed through sharp diction, rhetorical questions, and tangled syntax—e.g., moral dilemmas or bureaucratic critiques; overlaps with worried, tense, and sullen moods; useful for exploring cognitive or ethical conflict.
Also Known As
Annoyed Irritated Frustrated Aggravated Bothered harassed vext vex'd
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