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Vivid infinitive

Device
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 poetic infinitive used to intensify vividness or dramatic immediacy in description

Detailed Definition
A vivid infinitive is a poetic device that uses the infinitive form of verbs (“to see,” “to feel”) in striking, image-rich ways, often as a means of articulating aspiration, longing, or philosophical reflection. The open-ended nature of the infinitive allows abstraction while vivid modifiers anchor it in sensory experience.
Example
Example in poetry:
Vivid infinitive uses “to + verb” for dynamic imagery: Keats’ “To cease upon the midnight with no pain”; Emily Dickinson’s “To comprehend a nectar”; contemporary examples include Ocean Vuong’s “to love, to leave, to return”; W.H. Auden’s “To undo the folded lie”; Shakespeare’s “To be, or not to be.”
Additional Notes
Vivid infinitive uses the “to + verb” form to create universal or mythic tone (“to wander,” “to mourn”). Related to narrative infinitive. Depersonalizes action—common in elegies or folk verse; note how it elevates personal grief to collective experience.
Also Known As
Expressive infinitive Animated infinitive Lively verb form Historic infinitive
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