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Volta

Structure
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

The rhetorical or thematic turn in a poem, especially in sonnets.

Explore this topic in depth (2)

Volta — A volta is a turn: the moment when a poem changes direction in its thinking, feeling, argument, perspective, tone or imagery. Though closely associated with the sonnet, the volta can occur in almost any poem and at almost any point.

How to Compare Poems — Comparing poems is not a matter of making two separate lists. It is a way of seeing how poems ask related questions in distinct voices, shapes and sounds—and of discovering what each poem makes newly visible in the other.

Detailed Definition
Volta is the Italian term for “turn,” denoting a pivotal shift in thought, argument, or emotion within a poem, most famously in the sonnet between the octave and sestet; this rhetorical or thematic reversal deepens complexity, as in Shakespeare’s sonnets where the volta introduces resolution, irony, or heightened insight.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18, the volta occurs at line 9: “But thy eternal summer shall not fade”; In “Ode to a Nightingale,” Keats’s volta arrives with “Forlorn! the very word is like a bell”; In “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” Eliot’s volta is “Do I dare disturb the universe?”; In “Still I Rise,” Angelou’s volta is “But still, like dust, I’ll rise”; In “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night,” Thomas’s volta shifts to personal plea: “And you, my father…”
Additional Notes
Volta: The “turn” in a sonnet—usually between octave and sestet (Petrarchan) or before the couplet (Shakespearean)—where thought shifts direction; marks argumentative or emotional pivot.
Other Meanings of “Volta”
Also Known As
Turn Shift Pivot Reversal
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