The theme of the course paper is concerned with the stylistic analysis of five poems by different authors (D. H. Lawrence, H. W. Longfellow, R. Burns, Ch. Kingsley, B. Googe). The issue of stylistics and stylistic analysis has been extensively studied in recent years and the problem of stylistics has been a subject of special interest. Various scientific paradigms, trends and methods of stylistics and literary studies have been developed and explored in the works by such prominent scholars of pre-soviet, soviet and post-soviet linguistic schools as Larin B.
A. , Peshkovsky A. M. , Polivanov E. D. , Scherba L. V. , Galperin I. R. , Akhmanova O. S. , Arnold I. V. , Skrebnev Yu. M. , Golovin B. N. , Kukharenko V. A. , Morohovsky O. M. and many others. “Thus the term “stylistics” is not old but the discipline originated from ancient Greek and Roman poetics and rhetoric. Modern poetics is a discipline concerned with the structural forms of literary art, both poetic and prosaic, and its crucial problem is: what turns a verbal message into a work of art” [10, p. 3].
The term “stylistics” became associated with detailed linguistic criticism because, at the time it developed, the study of authorial style was a major critical concern, and linguistic analysis, allied to statistics, was popular with the more linguistically inclined critics. According to some modern scholars, it is now moved away from the study of style and towards the study of how meanings and effects are produced by literary texts. Nowadays by stylistics the modern British linguist Henry Widdowson means “the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation, i. . stylistics is an area of mediation between the two disciplines, the two subjects: language and literature” [18, p. 43]. In R. de Beaugrande’s words, “stylistics applies linguistics to literature” [2, p. 18]. So, the object of stylistic analysis is language represented in literary texts. Stylistic analysis is a part of literary studies, of any adequate linguistic description. It is practiced as a means of understanding the possible meanings in a text as well as finding out the individual properties of concrete texts or text types.
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Its ultimate aim is to clarify the message of the author’s work through careful observation and consistent description of language phenomena in the text under study. Done at the junction of linguistic and literary analysis the work is concerned with a number of problems of the poems interpretation, stylistic, linguistic and literary analysis. Although considerable amount of research has been devoted to the problem of the stylistic analysis few attempts have been made to investigate aspects such as structural-semantic parameters of he given poems, lexical and syntactic expressive means, some stylistic devices which are used in these poems. This defines the actuality of the work and its theoretical value. The objective of the paper is to examine the linguistic, stylistic, lexical and syntactic nature of poems, types of expressive means on the different levels of language and their informational significance. The given aim predetermines the concrete tasks of the research. The thesis will cover the following research tasks: 1) to analyse such poems as “Don’ts” by D. H.
Lawrence, “The Song of Hiawatha” (Introduction ) by H. W. Longfellow, “ My Heart’s in the Highlands” by R. Burns, “Young and Old” by Ch. Kingsley, and “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” by B. Googe; 2) to point out various types of syntactic and lexical-syntactic stylistic devices in them; 3) to dwell upon their structural, logical-semantic peculiarities and functions; 4) to determine the structural, semantic types of metaphors, metonymies, epithets and similes; 5) to lay emphasis on the great number of themes developed in poems; 6) to give general characteristics of poetic methods of D.
H. Lawrence, H. W. Longfellow, R. Burns, Ch. Kingsley, B. Googe. 7) to provide detailed analysis of the stylistic devices employed by the poets in their verses; 8) to give the close observation of the meanings of separate words and word combinations as well as of the significations of the various sentences and supra-phrasal units. So, the object of the paper is poetry by above mentioned poets. The subject is the main themes and stylistic peculiarities of these poems.
The materials and theoretical basis for the given course paper were chosen among the research works of the established literary critics and biographers, who studied the life and the distinctive features of poets’ legacy. Special attention was paid to the book by Thomas Crawford “Burns. A study of the Poems and Songs”, Arvin Newton “ Longfellow:His Life and Work” and other related works. The methodic base on the work became the works of Galperin I. R. , Kucharenko V. A. , Lototska K. materials from the Internet, different types of dictionaries, World Book Encyclopedia. In accordance with the purpose and tasks of the paper the following methods of investigation were used: words definitions analysis, contextual and systematic analysis of the poems, interpretational and stylistic analysis of the rhetorical figures for revealing the informational value of expressive means. The topicality of the research paper is determined by the necessity of systematic and resumptive comprehension of the notion “stylistic analysis”.
The scientific novelty of the work consists in the fact that we will provide with the thorough analysis of poems on taxonomic, content-grasping, semantic, stylistic and functional stages of investigation. Besides, we will try to investigate the use of polysemanticism of the word in combination with repetition in such poems as “Don’ts” by D. H. Lawrence and “Song of Hiawatha” (Introduction) by H. W. Longfellow.
From the theoretical point of view, this work presents the comprehensive study of lexical, syntactic expressive means and stylistic devices that makes it possible to reveal its lingvo- stylistic and functional features. So, the theoretical value of the given research paper is based on analysis of poets’ verses which promote the further development of fundamental principles of the theory of poetry. The practical value of the work lies in the fact that the results of the investigation can be used in the courses of lectures in stylistics, seminars in style and text interpretation and also can be useful for practical courses of English language.
The course paper consists of an introduction, three chapters, conclusion and list of references. The introduction explains the topicality of the research paper, underlines its theoretical and practical value and identifies the theme, aim, tasks, object, subject, methods of investigation of the work. The first chapter deals with the stylistic peculiarities of D. H. Lawrence and H. W. Longfellow’s poetry. Mainly it is focused on the polysemantic aspect and lingvo-stylistic potential of such poems as “Don’ts” and “The Song of Hiawatha” (Introduction).
The second chapter is dedicated to the detailed analysis of poem by Robert Burns which is called “My Heart’s in the Highlands”. It involves investigation of the style, expressive means, syntax of the given poem. The third chapter is concerned with two poems: “Young and Old” by Ch. Kingsley and “ Out of Sight, Out of Mind” by B. Googe. Considerable emphasis is put on the lexical, syntactic expressive means and the stylistic devices at different levels. To illustrate the use of rhetorical figures these poems are analysed, considering theoretical issues of modern Stylistics. Chapter 1 Stylistic peculiarities of D.
H. Lawrence and H. W. Longfellow’s poetry 1. 1. The use of polysemanticism of the word in combination with repetition in poems by D. H. Lawrence and H. W. Longfellow. The poem “Don’ts” which is under consideration was written by David Herbert Richards Lawrence ? an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter. Although best known for his novels, D. H. Lawrence wrote almost 800 poems. His early works clearly place him in the school of Georgian poets. What typified the entire movement, and Lawrence’s poems of the time, were well-worn poetic tropes and deliberately archaic language.
He wrote in a very free verse form, unbounded by traditional structures. Much of his work deals with issue of the working classes, relationships between men, women and the natural world. D. H. Lawrence was especially fond of writing about animals, flowers, and other aspects of nature ? usually in a deeply symbolic manner. His poetry collections include “Love Poems and others” (1913), “Amores” (1916), “Look! We have come through” (1917), “Birds, Beasts and Flowers” (1923), “The Collected Poems of D. H. Lawrence” (1928), “The Complete Poems of D. H.
Lawrence” (1964), edited by Viviande Sola Pinto and F. Warren Roberts and many others. The poem “Don’ts” is devoted to the author’s instructions, pieces of advice given to a little boy. The basic theme is the protest against narrow-minded, philistine morality, ideals and hypocrisy. This theme manifests itself in some peculiar word usage which imitates adult’s word usage in the conversation with children. The author foresees the insincere, artificial exhortation which a young boy is going to hear from mealy-mouthed adults who demand from him to be well-behaved boy. They require that a boy ry to “be a good little boy being as good as you can” [6, p. 375]. However, D. H. Lawrence insistently recommends not to listen to these pieces of advice, not to be that humble good child whom sanctimonious persons want to see. The author admonishes him to fight and to be a courageous man. The tone of the poem is moralizing and contrast between the significance of theme and parodic infantility of vocabulary creates acute satirical effect. D. H. Lawrence in his poem “Don’ts” uses “polysemanticism of the word in combination with repetition and this approximates by its stylistic function to casuistry.
It occurs in reference to the adjective “little” which is used here in various variants with different connotations, furthermore, in some connotations it suppresses greatly the denotative components of meaning. That is why the notion of metre is completely insignificant. Due to the fact that repetition along with parodic usage of unceremonious-informal style, especially baby-talk, are the key stylistic devices with which we should start analysis of the given poem. They are diverse by nature.
Alongside with a simple repetition of two or more absolutely identical components: mealy-mouthed, mealy-mouthed, greedy-mouthed, greedy-mouthed new repetition with some variation is introduced. Such repetition is, for example, greedy-mouthed as against mealy-mouthed. Similarity between mealy-mouthed and greedy-mouthed at the same time make them be compared, however difference between them supplements the characteristic of the “sly”, “every old lout”. Guite effective is partial repetition: “earning your living while your life is lost” [6, p. 375], where morphological closeness only sharper shades that living and life are not the same. (translation from Russian ? M. Andrushko) [22, p. 126-127]. In some cases repetition also can not collocate with the usage of polysemanticism. Then its function is intensifying or emotional or even intensifying-emotional as it is in the first two lines: Fight your little fight, my boy, Fight and be a man. [6, p. 375] Semantics variations in the repetition are very interesting for the theme of the given paragraph, i. e. the usage of different lexical-semantic variants which are included in the semantic structure of one and the same word.
Due to the parallel usage of the word in one context, these semantic variations accentuate differences in connotations. The word “little” is used in the given poem in two various lexical-semantic variants with antithetical connotations. In such phrases as “good little, good little boy”, “dear little girl”, “dear little home” the word little has one meaning and in such phrases as “little fight”, “let in a little air”, “a little hole in the holy prison”, “ your own little bit”, “your own little cry” another meaning. “The usage of the word “little” here is guite difficult.
First of all, there is need to resort to a dictionary to find out what in general is observed in the language. In the direct meaning “little” signifies the small size and is synonymic with neutral word small. In the informal style of speech this objective-logical meaning is strongly suppressed by its emotional meaning. So, little expresses sympathy, tenderness, compassion and is equivalent to affectionate diminutive suffixes of the Ukrainian language. Exactly this meaning forms the basis of the stylistic connotation of the first group of examples”. (translation from Russian ? M. Andrushko) [22, p. 127].
It is interesting that compatibility of the word “little” in this meaning with the following adjectives “dear” and “nice” is characteristic for informal speech, especially for the speech used in conversations with children. For instance, a dear little cottage, a dear little boy, a dear little kitten, a nice little wife and etc. Frequent usage of the word “little” sounds like affectation in the same way as in the conversational speech the misuse of diminutive suffixes creates an impression of insincere baby-talk. The stereotypy of those combinations used in not characteristic of direct speech shows their pretence, falsity and insincerity.
The poet mocks those people who will tempt a young boy by dreams about bourgeois welfare. It is worth to be noticed that the word “little” can be used ironically, for example, one of my little ideas and even with the tone of sarcasm: “so that’s your little plan, is it! ” [22, p. 375]. Since in the semantic structure of the word “little”, is included the meaning which is synonymic to the adjectives: unimportant, mean, paltry, so this estimation is introduced in the implication of the poem and in combination with an absurd repetition makes it grotesque.
It also destroys sweetness of promises about family happiness and comfort which are waiting for a good boy. The second group of examples ? “let in a little air”, “ fight your little fight” etc. ? belongs to the author’s direct speech. A reader can not find here any irony, the direct meaning of a metrical rhythm is preserved. The repetition underlines the idea that even modest results of everyone’s fight for ability to breathe in “the hole prison” easier are valuable and necessary for common good. In such way this poem acquires acute social orientation.
At the same time the contrast between lexical meanings of two lexical-semantic variants of one and the same word plays an important role as well. In the examined case the comparison of two variants of one and the same word occurs syntagmatically, i. e. both variants are in the text: little synonymic to affectionate diminutive suffix and little with the meaning of dimension or significance. The second type of comparison between direct and figurative meaning occurs in the following metaphors : “don’t be beholden to the herd inside the pen”, “money sty”, “ holy prison”.
The first metaphor is the metaphor in which in the text only one member of comparison is represented, i. e. only figurative meaning where people are resigned to their fate, to the institutionalization of D. H. Lawrence surrounding world. Those people are called “????? ? ??????”. Another metaphors ? “money sty” and “holy prison” ? show that this institutionalization is called “????” and “?????”. Alongside with many other stylistic devices these metaphors express very clearly the author’s attitude towards reality. Repetition can perform several functions simultaneously. In “Song of Hiawatha” by H. W.
Longfellow repetition creates folk colour, song rhythm and underlines interrelation of separate images combining them in one common picture: Should you ask me, whence these stories? Whence these legends and traditions, With the odors of the forest With the dew and damp of meadows, With the curling smoke of wigwams, With the rushing of great rivers, With their frequent repetitions, And their wild reverberations As of thunder in the mountains? I should answer, I should tell you, "From the forests and the prairies, From the great lakes of the Northland, From the land of the Ojibways, From the land of the Dacotahs,
From the mountains, moors, and fen-lands Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah, Feeds among the reeds and rushes. I repeat them as I heard them From the lips of Nawadaha, The musician, the sweet singer. " Should you ask where Nawadaha Found these songs so wild and wayward, Found these legends and traditions, I should answer, I should tell you, "In the bird's-nests of the forest, In the lodges of the beaver, In the hoofprint of the bison, In the eyry of the eagle! [8, p. 9-10] In these first stanzas of “Song of Hiawatha” a reader encounters with the convergence of stylistic devices and in the first place with repetitions.
This convergence puts him in the genre of lyrical epic stylized in a spirit of indian national-poetical creativity. Repetition adds rhythmical and song colour to the tale and integrates the enumeration of elements concerning the nature of the land. It is interesting that frequent repetitions are mentioned intentionally and are explained by the author as borrowing from the indian singer Nawadaha. D. H. Lawrence explains the emergence of repetitions in the songs of Nawadaha as the influence of the surrounding nature ? “reverbarations/ As of thunder in the mountains” [8, p. ]. “Various kinds of repetition can be an important means of connections inside the text. Connection by means of pronouns has more specific meaning. In the given example connection is accomplished by anaphoric repetition of such pronouns as “with”, “from” and “in” together with parallel constructions and some other kinds of repetitions. ” (translation from Russian ? M. Andrushko) [22, p. 185]. Alongside with lexical synonymic repetition: “stories-legends”, “moors-fenlands” here is represented purely syntactical repetition in the form of homogeneous parts of the sentence.
To be more precise, lexical synonymical repetition is like the extension of syntactical repetition. The poem by H. W. Longfellow is called a song. However, the word song is polysemantic and the meaning implied by the author is explained by three homogeneous nouns: stories, legends and traditions. The homogeneous parts of the sentence specify and details the content of the author’s opinion. The type of legends and traditions mentioned in the song is explained by a set of prepositional phrases which starts with the preposition “with”.
The indirect question with the word “whence” makes us think about the sources of the song. The answer to this question is a set of similar by its syntactic function parallel constructions with anaphoric preposition “from”. Inside this syntactic convergence is the convergence of single-word components: “the forests and the prairies”, “from the mountains, moors and fenlands” [8, p. 9]. So, the usage of polysemanticism of the word in combination with repetition is very important for the right understanding of the poem’s content. 1. 2. Lingvo-stylistic potential of D.
H. Lawrence’s “Don’ts” Stylistic devices and expressive means are very significant for complete understsnding and perception of the whole artistic colouring of a poem. That is why it is worth to consider some other stylistic devices in these two poems: “Don’ts” by D. H. Lawrence and “The Song of Hiawatha” (Introduction) by H. W. Longfellow. In the poem “Don’ts” the author imposes upon the reader his personal attitude towards a young boy and people who surrounds that boy. The repetition brings the necessary rhythm into the utterance.
There are many types of repetition in this poem. The first and the most vivid example is “Fight your little fight”. It is morphemic repetition which “is a variety of polyptoton, a figure based on the repetition of two or more words of the same stem (but belonging to different parts of speech or word classes within the same part of speech) ” [9, p. 132]. Also the poem is full of lexical repetitions, especially successive or juxtaposed: a good little, a good ittle, mealy-mouthed, mealy-mouthed, greedy-mouthed, greedy-mouthed, dear little, dear little, don’t drink, don’t drink.
Apart from successive, there is ordinary repetitions of the word “dear” in the collocation with different nouns: girl, mother, home and the repetition of the word “hit-hit” which is invented by the author. The most interesting and effective is the repetition in strong positions ? lexical anaphora which in this poem is represented by the word “don’t”: Don’t be sucked in by the su-superior, don’t swallow the culture bait, don’t drink, don’t drink and get beerier and beerier… [6, p. 375] To grasp and hold the reader’s interest the author uses a number of epithets.
Semantically they are classified into two major groups: 1) Without the violation of semantic agreement: a good little boy, dear little girl, dear old mother, dear little home, little fresh air, own little try, comfortable feeling, culture bait. All these epithets, apart from the last two, structurally are pair epithets. The last one is a word-epithet or simple. Also they all belong to explanatory epithets because they indicate an important features of the defined object. 2) With the violation of semantic agreement to the metaphoric epithets belong mealy-mouthed cowardice, golden opinions, sweet joys, dull death.
Structurally they are word epithets. A significant metaphor is used in this poem: don’t swallow the culture bait. This is verb metaphor, where bait is tenor and the vehicle is food which is only implied by a reader. According to the structure this metaphor is simple. D. H. Lawrence by this stylistic device wants to say that a little boy does not believe the words of other people. One more special variety of metaphor is allusion. D. H. Lawrence resorts to allusion in the last line of the poem ? “the risen Christ should be risen”. The author makes reference to the Bible, to the religious theme.
Concerning the vocabulary of the poem it is quite neutral, although some peculiar, special words occur. For example, the word “lout”. The origin of this word is uncertain and it has some stylistic colouring. The Oxford Dictionary gives the following definition: an uncouth and aggressive man or boy. Another interesting word is “suck in” which is slang and means “ to deceive”. The author also creates a new word ? “hit-hit” which is repeated twice. This stanzaic poem with the cross rhyme is one of the D. H. Lawrence’s masterpieces. 1. 3. The main stylistic-semantic features of H.
W. Longfellow’s poem “The Song of Hiawatha” (Introduction) “Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807-1882) was the most widely published and most famous American poet of the 1800’s. His reputation among critics declined sharply after his death, and he had much less influence on modern poetry than such other poets of his day as Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. However, many of his poems remain among the most familiar in American literature. Longfellow’s best-known longer works include “Evangeline”, “the Song of Hiawatha”, and “The Courtship of Miles Standish”.
Among his popular shorter poems are “The Village Blacksmith”, “The Children’s Hour”, “Paul Revere’s Ride”, “The Wreck of the Hesperus”, and “Excelsior”. Longfellow’s works achieved great popularity in Europe as well as in the United States. He was the first American writer to be honored in the Poet’s Corner of Westminster Abbey in London. ” [15, p. 448] “The Song of Hiawatha” is regarded as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s greatest, most characteristic, and most original epic poem. Intentionally epic in scope, it was described by its author as “this Indian Edda”.
It is, from beginning to end, a metrical version of legends originating with the Algonquin family of Indians. H. W. Longfellow had taken an interest in Indians from early youth, and early formed a plan to commemorate their legends in his verse. From Schoolcraft he obtained nearly all the material utilized in the cycle he named “Hiawatha”. Originally his intension was to group the legends about the mythical personality of the Algonquin deity ? Manabozho. The poet’s imagination has invested his hero with much of the character of the strong man who bound together the most compact and efficient league of Indian tribes. The Song of Hiawatha” was begun on June 25, 1854, and its 5,314 lines were concluded on March 29, 1855. Its meter, derived from that of the great Finnish epic, the Kalevala, consists of eight-syllabled lines, with stresses falling on the first, third, fifth and seventh syllables. Octosyllabic verse, whether trochaic, as here, or iambic, as in Scott’s “Lays of the Last Minstrel”, is by far the easiest of all measures to write; and the fact that “The Song of Hiawatha” is unrhymed made the American’s task greatly easier than that of the Scotchman. H. W.
Longfellow left a careful pronouncing vocabulary of all the proper names used from the Indian languages in his poem. These show an almost bewildering confusion of vowels, some having the quality of French, some that of English. The name of the titular hero himself is to be pronounced as if spelled hee-ah-wah? -tha, though the French transliteration made it Haye? nwatha, with the accent on the second syllable. The proper names throughout are used with the rarest skill, both to give melody and variety to the verse and to lend it that more subtle quality known as atmosphere.
The main character appears in the tales of Indians under various names. He endowed with many fine features and embodied the idea of overcoming every kind of discord, rejection of strife and wars in the name of labor peace on generous ground. H. W. Longfellow is rich in some special vocabulary or different realities: geographical, ethnographic, religious, mystical. Geographical realities mainly include the names of settlements, their location, characteristics of plant and wildlife and natural conditions. Using a large number of realities, indicating the birds, animals and insects, H. W.
Longfellow was trying to show the diversity of nature and its inhabitants. He mentions such birds as “Shuh, shuh-gah, the heron”, “Chetowaik, the plover”, “Mahng, the loon”, “the wild-goose, Wawa”, “the grouse the Mushkodasa”[8, p. 9-10]. Another special vocabulary concerns the names of nations, since each nation has evolved a way of life and culture that initially led them to division into different clans: Ojibways, Dacotahs, Hurons and others. Several times the author refers to “the vale of Tawasentha”[8, p. 10]. the word “vale” according to Oxford American Dictionary is a poetic term for a valley.
In the introduction a reader can also meet an archaic word “ye” which according to Collins Cobuild Dictionary means “an old-fashioned, poetic, or religious word for you when you are talking to more than one person”. Concerning the stylistic devices, repetition is one of the most frequent stylistic means in Longfellow’s poem. In the poem it can be founded on all levels of language, but the most frequent used is lexical anaphora: “With the odors of the forest With the dew and damp of meadows, With the curling smoke of wigwams, With the rushing of great rivers,
With their frequent repetitions…” [8, p. 9] or “From the forests and the prairies, From the great lakes of the Northland, From the land of the Ojibways, From the land of the Dacotahs, From the mountains, moors, and fen-lands …” [8, p. 9] and some others starting with prepositions “from”, “and”, “by”. These lines also can be characterized as parallel anaphoric syntactic constructions. Apart from lexical anaphora, the author uses distant repetition of such hrases as “pleasant water-courses”, “to this Song of Hiawatha”, morphemic repetition ? “Sang the Song” [8, p. 11] ? which belongs to root repetition. Affixational repetition in the line “There are longings, yearnings, strivings” brings the necessary rhythm into the utterance. In the same time, this line is a nice example of gradation, the type of gradation ? climax. Its function is to give a vivid emotional-evaluative characteristic of the phenomenon described. One more instance of gradation: “how he lived, and toiled, and suffered” only gives some additional emotive effect.
Antonymous syntactic parallel constructions: “Should you ask me”, “I should answer” form antithesis. A very nice lexical-syntactic stylistic device used in the poem is simile : And the thunder in the mountains, Whose innumerable echoes Flap like eagles in their eyries… [8, p. 11] It describes the nature of the valley, the weather in the mountains and this description trough using simile gives a reader the clear picture of that locality.
The poem is rich in epithets among which it is worth to mention such as “songs so wild and wayward”(a pair metaphoric epithet), “melancholy marshes”(simple metaphoric), “green and silent valley”(the first is tautological, the second is metaphoric, structurally it is a pair epithet), “singing pine-trees”(simple, metaphoric), “wondrous birth”(simple emotive proper or affective epithet) and some others. However, the above mentioned epithets in the best way to convey the mood, feeling and emotions of the poem.
The excessive use of repetition have made “The Song of Hiawatha” the most parodied poem in the English language, spawning more than a thousand variations, some of them as long as the original. Despite the flaws of critics, caused by H. W. Longfellow’s choice to mimic the solemn, unrhymed tetrameter of the Finns’ Kalevala, “The Song of Hiawatha” is still widely accepted as a significant nineteenth-century American poem. Chapter 2 Romantic and lyrical figure of Robert Burns 2. 1. General stylistic features of R. Burns’s “My Heart’s in the Highlands” Robert Burns was one of the great poets of the eighteens century and the only great poet ever to emerge from the British peasant class”[11,p. 23]. According to Merrian-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature, R. Burns was “national poet of Scotland who wrote lyrics and songs in the Scottish dialect”[12, p. 187]. John Anderson mentions that “most of Robert Burns’s poetry is written in Scotch brogue. The poet used dialect deliberately. It was not that he knew no better. You will notice that when it pleased him, he could turn out stanzas in pure English as polished and smooth as those of any classic poet”[13, p. 36]. “Burns was interested in authentic folk songs. He collected about 300 original and traditional Scottish songs for books compiled in his day, including The Scots Musical Museum (1787). Burns wrote many poems to be sung to Scottish folk tunes”[14, p. 716]. He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish Diaspora around the world.
His poem “Auld Lang Syne” is often sung at Hogmanay (the last day of the year), and “Scots Wha Hae” served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well known across the world today include “A Red, Red Rose”, “A Man’s a Man for A’That”, “To a Louse”, “To a Mouse”, “The Battle of Sherramuir”, “Tam o’Shanter”, and “Ae Fond Kiss”. However, the poem which we are going to analyse is called “My Heart’s in the Highlands”. The title of this poem tells us quite a bit.
The poet identifies a place that is important to him, and the word “heart” indicates a strong emotional attachment to the Highlands. The poem is lyric, in fact, a song, and the musical language expresses the emotions of the speaker. In this poem we can assume that the speaker and the poet are the same. It is a poem about Robert Burns leaving his home, the Highlands. He looks back on his life to remember all of the good times he had there. This shows love for a place, the Highlands of Scotland and proves that R. Burns was homesick. Concerning the poetical form, R.
Burns wrote four-line stanzas, called quatrains, with a very simple aabbccdd rhyme scheme. The metrical pattern includes an opening iambus followed by two dactyl feet and ends with an accented syllable. Since the dactyl feet prevail, the poem is written in dactylic tetrameter. Poets often vary the meter and feet slightly to avoid a work that sounds like a metronome. This poem has strong visual elements. R. Burns writes about the “wild deer”, “green valleys”, and “wild-hanging woods”. In addition, there is an aural image in the line “Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods”[1, p. 54]. These images convey the poet’s love for the region, a love that the audience recognizes. Thus, the sensory images elicit an emotional response. R. Burns uses repetition to great effect. Not only does he repeat the first stanza as the last, which is called in stylistics lexical framing, he also repeats words: “Wherever I”, “farewell to the”. [1, p. 254]. In the third stanza the author uses repetition in strong position ? lexical anaphora: “Farewell to the mountains high cover'd with snow; Farewell to the straths and green valleys below;
Farewell to the forrests and wild-hanging woods; Farwell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods. ” [1, p. 254] By using repetition, the poet makes “My Heart’s in the Highlands” sound like a song. R. Burns also uses the devices to emphasize his ideas. The word “Highlands” is repeated eight times, and “Farewell” is repeated six times. The most repeated phrase “My Heart’s in the Highlands” contains the most important idea in the poem. At the same time it is a very nice noun metaphor (T ? Heart, V ? implied by the author: human body or even the author himself).
According to the degree of unexpectedness, it is genuine metaphor which evokes images and suggests some associations, reveals the author’s emotional attitude towards the described place. Repetition creates an emotional response because the reader must acknowledge the importance of the poet’s attachment to the place. Similarly, the poet uses parallelism, the repetition of the same grammatical form structure, to convey his message and elicit an emotional response: “Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe”, “Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North”, “Wherever I wander, wherever I love”[1, p. 54]. The whole third stanza also serves as an example of parallelism. All these repetitions add the feeling of homesickness and nostalgia in the poem. The opposition in this poem is between “the Highlands” and “here”. This opposition in stylistics is called antithesis. Since a reader do not know what kind of place “here” is, we imagine that it is quite the opposite of the Highlands. This establishes the sense of sadness, the sense of feeling out of place that most people felt at some time. A significant stylistic device is periphrasis : “the birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth”.
The author in such way gives proper names to his Highlands. He wants to emphasize that his country is very beautiful and he will miss it. Usage of epithets enriches the aesthetic perception of the poem. In the poem we can find such epithets as “wild-hanging woods” which is compound structurally and metaphorical semantically; “loud-pouring floods” also compound metaphorical epithet. “Wild deer”, “green vallies” are examples of simple tautological epithets. R. Burns also resorts to using a Scottish dialect. He mentions the word “Straths” which means a broad mountain valley. John Anderson writes about R.
Burns: “Burns used dialect because ? however well educated a Scotsman may be ? when he is with those he loves and trusts, he drops naturally into brogue. It is cozy, familiar speech of the home…Burns, writing for his neighbors and cronies, uses the daily speech, homelike and comfortable as their old clothes”[13, p. 336]. 2. 2. The style in “My Heart’s in the Highlands” In the poem “My Heart’s in the Highlands”, the reflectively longing and lyrical tones reflect an inner feeling of yearning for the Highlands and a love for the land that liberates those who have been exposed to it.
The narrator consistently reminisces about his memories of the Highlands and as he does so, he explains these feelings in a rhythmic and melodic fashion. The feelings that the narrator exhibits reflect the natural tendency of humans to maintain a connection with their original homeland. The poem’s diction emphasizes the liberation that the Highlands provide and the narrator’s feelings pertaining to his deep affection toward the Highlands. As the narrator “wander[s]” throughout the Highlands, he ventures to places as widespread as “mountains covered in snow” where he [“chases”] wild deer.
The Highlands are a place where one experiences freedom as evidence by how expansive they appear. The lack of bothersome interaction and the presence of wide-open spaces allow the narrator to maintain a sense of no restrictions. As the Highlands, or the “birthplace of valor”, are described, it is evident that the narrator is “forever [in] love” with them, and that memories of the Highlands are with him “wherever” the narrator travels. The Highlands symbolize bold strength that has stuck with the narrator throughout his life.
This results in the narrator feeling a close bond with the Highlands. Along with the diction, the point of view allows for observation of the various tones. The first-person point of view reinforces the feelings of wistfulness and release that the poem conveys. The narrator says “my Heart is not here” in order to convey the fact that he longs to be in “[his] contry of Worth”, or the Highlands. There is a sense of immediacy as the narrator describes his experiences roaming throughout the hills and vallyes, and his longing is directly conveyed through the first-person point of view.
It is clear that, as the Highlands are described, the narrator would rather be there than anywhere else, and the first-person point of view is beneficial in conveying this. The narrator says that he will think of the Highlands “wherever I wander,” since he claims that “my heart’s in the Highlands, where’er I go. ” The narrator is not able to let go of his thoughts and feelings about the Highlands when he is not there. This reflects the strong feelings that the narrator has for the Highlands and how he feels incomplete without their presence. Other things, such as the syntax, serve to provide a deeper meaning for the poem.
The syntax in the poem moves from short phrases separated by commas, to a rhythmic and repetitive farewell, and finally to a structure that parallels the opening. Initially, the text is very ephemeral, and there is almost no defined rhythm associated with it. The narrator is incredibly attached to the Highlands, and his thoughts seem almost unfocused as he continually thinks about and longs for the Highlands. This reflects how detached the narrator is to his current life and how he would rather be somewhere where he can live with no restrictions. In the middle, the poem gains a defined rhythm, and repetition occurs.
The narrator repetitively says goodbye to the Highlands, and during this farewell, he drifts off into somewhat of a euphoric daydream. His thoughts flow freely and in a distinct rhythm. This free-thinking coincides with the freedom that the narrator feels when he is in the Highlands. In the end, the text returns to the brief and disjointed format that it begins with. The narrator realizes that he is not physically at the Highlands, and he resumes wishing that he was. The end reflects a snap back to reality that occurs as the narrator finishes his imaginative farewell.
Once again, the broken-up text reflects the uneasiness that the narrator has with his current life. While the syntax serves to provide the poem with a deeper meaning, the imagery and detail expound upon the meaning is evident on the surface of the text. The poem’s imagery and detail reflect both the physical characteristics that make the Highlands such a special area and the deep emotional love that the narrator has for them. The Highlands are very expansive areas that p from “mountains high covered with snow” to the “green valleys below,” and the narrator feels a connection with these areas as he “a-chas[es] the deer” across the hills.
The narrator feels free in an environment as widespread as this. Because of this freedom, he reaches a comfort level that is unmatched in any other respect; he even feels comfortable enough to chase wild deer across the hills. The narrator’s passion for “the country of Worth” is evidenced by the fact that his “heart is not here. ” His strong love for the Highlands makes it seem as though no other land can be compared to them. In fact, he cannot devote his unyielding love to anything other than the Highlands because no love that he has ever experienced has been as strong as his love for the Highlands.
The imagery, syntax, point-of-view, and diction each reflect the two original tones of the poem. Because they demonstrate that the poem exhibits a reflective longing for the past and that the text is lyrical and expressive of feelings, the styles of writing that the poem exhibits are very effective. As in A Dictionary of English Literature is said: “Burns is important because he deserted the artificial tradition of eighteenth-century poetry, replacing poetic diction with the pungent vernacular, false sentiment with true tenderness, sharms with realities. He taught the Romantics, in Wordsworth’s words: How Verse may build a princely throne On humble truth. ” To the world at large he is merely a singer of timeless song”[19, p. 45]. Chapter 3 Lexical, syntactic, expressive means and stylistic devices in: 3. 1. “Young and Old” by Charles Kingsley As The Encyclopedia Americana informs:“Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) was English clergyman, author, and teacher and a leader in social and economic reform movements…A founder of the Christian Socialist movement, he was an active supporter of the British working-class movement known as Chartism, as is demonstrated in his early novels ?
Yeast (his first novel, originally published in Fraser’s Magazine in 1848) and the powerful Alton Locke (1850). Openly didactic, they were meant to educate the upper classes in their social responsibilities. Ch. Kingsley is best known for his later novels, which include historical romances and children’s stories. Perhaps the most popular novels were Hypatia (1853) and Westward Ho! (1855)…Among his works for children in The Water-Babies (1863), a fairy tale based on natural history” [16, p. 420]. Our task is to analyze one of the poems by Ch. Kingsley “Young and Old”.
This poem originally appeared as a song sung by a character in the Reverend’s book entitled “The Water-Babies”. Before we get into the specifics of symbols I would like to dwell upon the meter and rhyme scheme. This poem is written in an altered iambic trimester. The alteration is very slight: a substitution of a single tribrachin place of the last iambic meter of every odd line. The simple rhyme scheme ababcdcdefefghgh contributes to the easiness of the song and prevents the subject from feeling overly forced by use of other unnecessarily more intricate schemes.
This poem is about the dissimilarities of youth and old age. There is a certain sentimental connotation to be further explored, but the basis of the poem is rooted in the differences. In the first stanza the author addresses youth. A spry horse to carry along the boot, and the idea that “every dog [has] his day” paired alongside the comments of a young world and queenly lasses provide us with a clear idea that the topic we broach is that of youth. The line “young blood must have its course, lad, and every dog his day” come across as a call to action, demanding perhaps as busier and more productive youth.
Additionally, we are treated to a slue of natural imagery in the form of green trees, geese, swans, the horse etc. The allusion to a simple, natural order is a compelling one. This is continued in the second stanza, though the trees are marked as being brown, the sport of the previously accelerated and youthful life has gone stale, the cart wheels are run down, and the lad is forced to “creep home” and take his place among the “spent” and “maimed” occupants. The final lines provide the wish that, God willing, you are alongside the one that you love.
The poem “Young and Old” is full of many kinds of stylistic devices. The main stylistic device used in the text under analysis is antithesis: “When all the world is young, lad/ When all the world is old, lad”[5, p. 334]. The whole poem is written by means of parallel constuctions: “ And all the trees are green; And every goose a swan, lad, And every lass a queen;” [5, p. 334] The quatation above mentioned also is a vivid example of repetition in strong positions, namely lexical anaphora. Another example containing anaphora: “And all the trees are brown; And all the sport is stale, lad,
And all the wheels run down…” [5, p. 334] Apart from lexical anaphora, there is also lexical epistrophe. In every two stanzas the word “lad” is repeated. A very significant stylistic device used by Ch. Kingsley is ellipsis or apokoinu: “And all the trees are green, And every goose [is] a swan, lad…” [5, p. 334] In the second stanza predicate is omitted but it is implied by the author. I can point out another instance of an ellipsis: “Young blood must have its course, lad And every [must have] dog his day” [5, p. 334] Concerning metaphors, they are not so numerous.
However, the poem contains two structurally very similar metaphors: “When all the world(T) is young(V)” and “When all the world(T) is old(V)”. They are, in my opinion, personal metaphor, i. e. personification. Here world obtains the characteristics of human. It can be young or become old. Also these two lines are, to some extent, hyperbolized by usage of the word “all”. This poem was analyzed by T. Hoagwood. He shows that it is impossible for the song to be fully understood when first encountered in The Water-Babies. It is only later in the story that we recognize that the song is the old dame’s lament for her son Grimes who left her.
The realization at the end of the novel that Grimes is her son “enables us to revisit the lyric and to revise our understanding of its latent, private, and even secret significance for the grieving old dame”. 3. 2. “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” by Barnabe Googe One more poem which we are going to analyze is called “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” by Barnabe Googe. According to The Encyclopedia Americana, B. Googe (1540-1594) was “English poet and translator. Googe’s only original work is Eglogs, Epytaphes and Sonnets, a collection of poems published in 1563. His eclogues are among the earliest examples of English pastoral poetry.
He also translated into English some minor contemporary works in Latin prose”[17, p. 742]. As a translator, Googe is noted for his English versions of Marcellus Palingenius's Zodiake of Life (1560) and Conrad Heresbach's Four Books of Husbandry (1577). Googe's reputation, which considerably declined following his death in 1594, has been revived by literary historians who recognize in his work transmissions of both ideas and stylistic practices that would influence such better-known English writers as Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, and John Milton. In “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” B. Googe worked with a proverbial theme.
He stacks caesuras in thirteen lines of the eighteen-line poem, all of them more or less in the exact middle. Because of the repetition, these caesuras speed up the lines rather than slowing them down, hence allowing the lines from which Googe suddenly omits caesural pause ? “The heavy heart breeds mine unrest”, “Such pleasures rife shall I obtain/ When distance doth depart us twain” [4, p. 96] ? to gather greater emphasis since, on top of the newly introduced spondees and trochees, they are also made to slow down. This particular poem also demonstrates Googe’s stoical approach to verse as an adequate container for human feeling.
He combines a monotonous rhythm and rhyme scheme with a predominantly monosyllabic lines, pithy both in content and length. The author uses in his poem repetition in strong position through the whole poem namely chain-repetition: “The oftener seen, the more I lust, The more I lust, the more I smart, The mire I smart, the more I trust, The more I trust, the heavier heart…” [4, p. 96] This repetition brings the necessary rhythm into the utterance. A very interesting device used in the poem is gradation. A reader can find an emotional climax that expresses the ideas in a descending order of significance: The rarer seen, the les in mind, The less in mind, the lesser pain, The lesser pain, less grief I find, The lesser grief, the greater gain” [4, p. 96] The leading feature of the poem is usage of comparison. I. R. Galperin in his book “Stylistics” states that “comparison means weighing two objects belonging to one class of things with the purpose of establishing the degree of their sameness or difference”[3, p. 167]. In “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” we also can observe comparison. It is almost in each line: “the oftener/ the more”, “the more/ the heavier”, “the rarer/ the less”, “the lesser/the greater”, “the more/the happier”.
A device greatly favoured by the writer is irony: “Such pleasure rife shall I obtain When distance doth depart us twain” [4, p. 96]. According to Lototska K. “English Stylistics”: “Irony (from the Greek “eironeia”= hidden mockery) is a device based on the interaction of dictionary and contextual meanings standing in opposition…Irony is transference by contrast”[9, p. 86]. The last two lines of the poem “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” is the vivid instance of irony. The whole poem is very symbolic. Even the tittle means the idea that if you do not see someone or something frequently, you will forget about it.
Barnabe Googe wrote poems in the Native Tradition, a species of plain style. In this relatively early period, accents were heavy, unaccents were light, alliteration survived from old Anglo-Saxon verse, and the subject was usually serious. Conclusion The general purpose of the paper was to investigate stylistic, linguistic, lexical and syntactic peculiarities of five selected poems by different authors, to check earlier observations on the subject of stylistic analysis and to obtain new information. This course paper explored the comprehensive study of stylistic devices.
Despite the fact that there are many works devoted to the problem under analysis some important aspects such as structural-semantic parameters of the poems and some lexical stylistic devices have not been fully investigated. In this work, to some extent, were used the elements of stylistics under lexico-syntactic patterns and choices, phonological, morphological and graphological devices to analyze such poems as “Don’ts” by D. H. Lawrence, “The Song of Hiawatha” (Introduction ) by H. W. Longfellow, “ My Heart’s in the Highlands ” by R. Burns, “Young and Old” by Ch. Kingsley, and “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” by B.
Googe. The display of stylistics in the poems, their functions and their effects have been the major focus of this research work. To make a striking impression on one’s readers and stir up their emotions, nothing else could be done to achieve this purpose than employing the right and appropriate use of language. The study revealed that poets made use of various stylistic devices in a way that interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentences to secure emphasis and focus the reader’s attention. As can be seen from the data, each poet uses different techniques in his poem.
In “Don’ts” by D. H. Lawrence we can find polysemanticism of the words in combination with repetition, metaphors, epithets, allusion. “The Song of Hiawatha” by H. W. Longfellow is rich in special vocabulary and different realities. The stylistic value of R. Burns’s poem “My Heart’s in the Highlands” can not be overestimated. Ch. Kingsley and B. Googe are considered to be masters in usage of stylistic devices. Under the lexico-syntactic choices, the authors use similes, metaphors which are both related to the topic of similarity to give clearness and liveliness to words.
Under the phonological devices, rhyming scheme, consonance, assonance are found and they have been used to reinforce meaning. They also provide tone and musical colour and aid memorality. Different kinds of repetition, which is greatly favoured by the authors, and punctuation marks have been used to play various roles to achieve cohesion in discourse for varying stylistic effects. All of these things found out have worked together in attaining and ensuring effective meaning and communication. The choice of words by the poets also plays a very important role in meaning making.
It helps the reader to understand the intention and the message the poets were trying to pass across. The obtained results give a clue to the understanding of stylistic analysis. As the previous researches on the given theme are not numerous, it is difficult to compare the findings of this research paper with the results of other study. In the course of investigation I had solid theoretical base. The inconsistency of data is probably a consequence of the lack of practical material and previous research.
The problems associated with stylistic analysis and meaning of various expressive means are far from being solved and require further theoretical and experimental efforts. To sum up, different poets in their poems cultivates various styles and techniques which are worth of being studied. Each poem that was analyzed in this course paper fascinates readers by its stylistic originality. References 1. Burns R. The Poetical Works/R. Burns. ? Moscow:Raduga Publishers, 1982. ? 705p. 2. Beaugrande, R,de. Style and Stylistics [Electronic resource] R. de. Beaugrande/ Mode of access:http://www. beaugrande. bizland. om/proceedings. ? [Last access: 2012, October 25]. ? Title from the screen. 3. Galperin I. R. Stylistic/ I. R. Galperin. ? Moscow:Higher school, 1977. ? 331p. 4. Googe B. Eglogs, epytaphes, and sonettes, 1563 / B. Googe, E. Arber. ? A. Constable and Co. , 1871. ? 128p. 5. Kingsley Ch. Poems/ Ch. Kingsley. ? Wildside Press LLC, 2007. ? 428p. 6. Lawrence D. H. The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence/ D. H. Lawrence. ? Wordsworth Editions, 1994. ? 352p. 7. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama/ Ed. By X. J. Kennedy and D. Gioia. ? Harper Collins, 1991. ? 3400p. 8. Longfellow H.
W. The Song of Hiawatha And Other Poems/ H. W. Longfellow. ? The Reader’s Digest Association Inc. , Pleasantville, N. Y. / Montreal, 1989. ? 350p. 9. Lototska K. English Stylistics/ K. Lototska. ? Lviv: Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, Publishing Centre, 2008. ? 253p. 10. Maltzev V. A. An Introduction to Linguistic Poetics. ? ?????:???????? ?????, 1980. ? 240p. 11. McGuirk C. Robert Burns and the Sentimental Era/ C. McGuirk. ? Tuchwell Press, 1985. ? 193p. 12. Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature. ? Springfield, Massachusetts: Merrian-Webster, Incorporated, Publishers, 1995. 1236p. 13. St. Thomas More Series: Prose and Poetry of England/ Ed. By J. L. Maline. ? Syracuse, New York: L. W. Singer Company, 1955. ? 750p. 14. The World Book Encyclopedia. ? Chicago, IL: World Book, Inc. ? 2003. ? Vol. 2. ? 760p. 15. The World Book Encyclopedia. ? Chicago, IL: World Book, Inc. ? 2011. ? Vol. 12. ? 538p. 16. The Encyclopedia Americana. ? Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier. ? 2001. ? Vol. 16. ? 798p. 17. The Encyclopedia Americana. ? Danbury, Connecticut: Grolier. ? 2001. ? Vol. 19. ? 922p. 18. Widdowson,H. G. Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature. ? L: Longman,1975. 128p. 19. A Dictionary of English Literature/ Ed. by Homer A. Walt, William W. Watt. ? New York: Barnes ; Noble, Inc. , 1877. ? 430p. 20. Oxford American Dictionary/ New Oxford American Dictionary/Ed. By John Simpson ; Edmund Weiner. ? Oxford University Press, Inc. , 2005. ? 1008p. 21. Collins Cobuild English Words in Use. / Ed. By J. M. Sinclair. ? London: Longman, 2008. ? 1052p. 22. ??????? ?. ?. ?????????? ???????????? ??????????? ????? / ?. ?. ???????. ? ??????:???????????, 1990. ? 304??. -------------------------------------------- [ 1 ]. According to Lototska K. English stylistics” tenor is the subject of thought in a trope (in rhetoric it is also called the primum comparandum), and the vehicle is the concept of a thing, person or an abstract notion with which the tenor is compared or identified (the secundum comparatum). Other terminologists distinquish between “idea” and “image” or ”target” and “source”. [ 2 ]. Allusion is considered to be a special variety of metaphor by Yu. Skrebnev. Allusion (from Latin “to mention inderectly”) is a hint, an indirect reference to something presumably known from literature, mythology, history, the Bible. [ 3 ]. According to Lototska K. English Stylistics”: Gradation (Gr. ”ascent, climbing up”) is an arrangement of parallel words and statements in an ascending or descending order of importance, intensity,etc. The first, ascending order is known as climax. The opposite arrangement of parallel units, by which the thought “descends” from higher to lower, is called anticlimax. [ 4 ]. Simile (Latin “similes”= alike) is an imaginative comparison (also called literary comparison). It consists on an explicit likening of one object (the tenor) to another object (the vehicle) on the basis of some common features/characteristic (the ground).
The common scheme is “A is like B”. [ 5 ]. Wondrous ? it is a poetic or literary word which has meaning of inspiring a feeling of wonder or delight. [ 6 ]. Iambus ? a metrical foot consisting of one short (or unstressed) syllable followed by one long (or stressed) syllable. [ 7 ]. dactyl ? a metrical foot consisting of one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables or (in Greek and Latin) one long syllable followed by two short syllables. [ 8 ]. Antithesis ? is an opposition or contrast of ideas usually presented in parallel constructions ( in phrases within one sentence, or two or more clauses or sentences). [ 9 ]. eriphrasis (Grek “to speak all round”) is a figure of speech when a longer phrase with descriptive epithets, abstract general terms, etc. , is used istead of a possible shorter and plainer form of expression. [ 10 ]. tautological epithets ? became fixed through long and repeated use, they emphasize one of the primary qualities of the defined. [ 11 ]. tribrach ? is a metrical foot used in formal poetry and Greek and Latin verse. In quantative metre(such as the meter of classical verse), it consists of three short syllables; in accentual-syllabic verse (such as form
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