What's the difference between bittersweetness and poignancy?
Bittersweetness
Definition:
Example Sentences:
(1) For the embattled people of Ali Akbar Dial, a collection of disappearing villages on the southern tip of the island in Bangladesh , the distant trees serve as a bittersweet reminder of what they have lost and a warning of what is come.
(2) The revolt represents a bittersweet victory for Tsipras, who now has to rely on “pro-European” opposition parties to push policies through parliament.
(3) The song is that musical embodiment of bittersweet chemical comedown when you still feel divine but your heart skips a beat and you don't always quite catch your breath."
(4) It’s been a bittersweet week for NHS providers – the hospital, mental health, ambulance and community NHS trusts and foundation trusts who treat a million patients every 36 hours and are the backbone of our national health service.
(5) Emma's work is also showcased in the shop until the end of May in Sad Stefano and Friends (pictured), an exhibition that promises to capture the bittersweet complexities and confusion of childhood.
(6) She said the prospect of stricter gun control laws was bittersweet.
(7) This time, they held out but there were some hairy moments after Wayne Rooney’s sending off and it was a bittersweet occasion for the man Louis van Gaal had entrusted to be his captain.
(8) Winter stem fluid from the bittersweet nightshade, Solanum dulcamara L., also showed the recrystallization inhibition activity characteristic of the animal thermal hysteresis proteins (THPs), suggesting a possible function for the THPs in this freeze tolerant species.
(9) "Unless we move to adopt a new economic model, the recovery will prove unsustainable and bittersweet for those who do not benefit from it before it is extinguished."
(10) After Liverpool announced the previous day that their captain would be leaving for MLS , Rodgers’ feelings about the source of the rescue act must have been bittersweet: could it not have been someone, anyone, else?
(11) And that could be crucial.” It seems that the particular bittersweet combination of nostalgic memory is vital to such effects.
(12) He drinks and dances and talks his way through a couple of days in the city, arriving at a moment of bittersweet joy as he watches his younger sister ride the carousel in Central Park.
(13) In a bittersweet farewell, Gabrielle Giffords , the US congresswoman recovering from a gunshot wound to the head, accepted chocolates and a big presidential hug as she claimed her seat one last time in the House of Representatives during Barack Obama's state of the union address.
(14) There is another a bittersweet angle to the story: the relationship between Ramphele and the DA's current leader, Helen Zille, who is giving up the presidential candidacy, dates back to the death of Ramphele's former partner, the Black Consciousness activist Steve Biko.
(15) These memories are associated with a characteristic affective coloration described as "bittersweet".
(16) Two months later, many of the students who pushed for the change say the decision is bittersweet.
(17) It's pretty much perfect: the story of a love that can never happen, between a failing Dublin songwriter and a Czech immigrant, it has that Brief Encounter bittersweet ache to it.
(18) Everyone else has written about her, so it’s a chance to give her version.” Obama’s favourite word in recent months has been “bittersweet” as she cycles through the calendar of events for the last time.
(19) She added: "I can only imagine how bittersweet her freedom must be for her, leaving Shane and Josh behind."
(20) And in a bittersweet twist of political fate this quiet revolt by the people of the East End may yet lock Ed Miliband out of 10 Downing Street.
Poignancy
Definition:
(n.) The quality or state of being poignant; as, the poignancy of satire; the poignancy of grief.
Example Sentences:
(1) To anyone who has followed Goldin's career, and grown familiar with her cast of characters, these images have an added layer of poignancy.
(2) They are full of the kind of worries any parent might have if their child was in a dangerous situation, but because Rachel never came home, they have a devastating poignancy.
(3) Spencer himself would have preferred comparison to Giotto's Arena chapel in Padua, while for Taylor "there is a more Rothko-esque experience when you sit in the chapel and look at the paintings, and certainly after 10 minutes you are overcome by a sense of poignancy."
(4) When each interaction with a grandchild or good-bye kiss to a spouse may be the last, a sense of poignancy may permeate even the most casual everyday experiences.
(5) The simple narrative, built around the near-mythical Christmas truce between the trenches of 1914, has just the right blend of poignancy and sentimentality to bring a tear to the most cynical eye.
(6) Mufasa’s death in The Lion King , betrayed by his hateful brother Scar, has lived in the minds of generations – I know it lives in mine – and the enduring poignancy of Mufasa’s fate has not made things any easier for Mr Palmer.
(7) But Jobs's address has an unbearable poignancy just now, especially for those who knew him well.
(8) Despite their eerie poignancy, some cycling campaigners worry that the memorials could, in fact, act in the main to put off would-be cyclists.
(9) There must have been a tinge of poignancy as well pride for particular individuals.
(10) Meanwhile, in Rochester, New York, an election tradition took on even greater poignancy.
(11) You are crazy.” Pope Francis departs US after historic tour from Havana to Philadelphia - live Read more The mass capped a day of rapture and poignance for those swept up in a week of pope mania, a public relations triumph during which the 78-year-old Argentinian deftly mixed politics and pageantry to draw attention to his priorities – poverty, injustice, pollution – and to challenge the US to do better.
(12) Volunteers including armed forces members based in the area, including many for whom the site has a personal poignancy since they have just returned safely from active service overseas, will be helping record the site in detail.
(13) The poignancy of this is highlighted by the fact that the orbit contains the organ of sight and also has high aesthetic value.
(14) Repeating the lyrics “been telling myself that I can roll with the changes” in a falsetto that matures with age, he looks anxiously aware of the lyrical poignancy.
(15) Instead, Swift called on artists to seek a new connection with fans, an “arrow through the heart” poignancy that would overcome the collapse of the old revenue models.
(16) The theme was portentous and loud, and the mood of the moment pivoted drastically, from Elton’s sweet poignancy, implying the arrival of a tired touring man coming to greet his supporters late in the California afternoon, to something far more fascist-theatrical.
(17) But, perhaps drawing on the poignancy of Blade Runner's self-aware replicants, movies have sometimes been driven to take the clones' perspective.
(18) The fact that this list was previously kept a secret just adds to the poignancy.
(19) As a young therapist who once counselled pregnant women, I know the poignancy and delicacy of this time spent with a woman – young or approaching menopause – who finds herself pregnant.
(20) Naturally such knowledge adds poignancy to the descriptions of Esther's suffering when she, like Plath, was just 19.