Poetic Language: Syntax Analysis PDF

Here is the converted text from the image into a structured markdown format: ### An analysis of the rhyme scheme can yield a variety of insights into poetry. The interpretative value consists firstly in the fact that the rhyme scheme subdivides a poem. While end-rhymes link lines of verse, a new rh...

Here is the converted text from the image into a structured markdown format: ### An analysis of the rhyme scheme can yield a variety of insights into poetry. The interpretative value consists firstly in the fact that the rhyme scheme subdivides a poem. While end-rhymes link lines of verse, a new rhyme frequently marks the beginning of a new unit of meaning. Rhymes also create a link between the rhyming words by means of repetition on the phonological level. This sometimes serves to heighten contrasts which reach to the core of a poem, such as the alternate rhymes ‘delight/thrilled' (referring to British women) and ‘fight/killed' (referring to the soldiers) in SIEGFRIED SASSOON's “The Glory of Women". By creating such intratextual parallels, rhymes also highlight the coherence of the text. The representation of the rhyme scheme as a series of lower case letters enables us to give a schematic representation of sound patterns and thus to gain an overview of the structure of a poem. Even poems that are composed entirely of stichic verse can have a structure, which can generally be discerned by examining their rhyme scheme. #### Other sound patterns In addition to the various types of rhyme and rhyme schemes, poems can include other internal sound patterns, which contribute to their phonological complexity. Internal links can be established not only by means of end-rhyme and other types of rhyme, but also by means of repetition and accumulation, of sounds or phonemes and groups of phonemes. The most important phenomena are explained below: The following table shows the sound patterns: | | | | :----- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Alliteration | succession of words with the same initial sound or succession of accented syllables with the same consonant or consonantal group | | | *Nothing is so beautiful as spring – / When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush* (GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, "Spring") | | | *And live alone in the bee-loud glade* (W. B. YEATS, “The Lake Isle of Innisfree") | | Consonance | congruence of consonants short of alliteration; repetition of a sequence of two or more consonants, but with a change in the intervening vowel (see table 3.2., pararhyme) | | | *Gobbets of blubber spill to wind and weather* (ROBERT LOWELL, “The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket") | | Assonance | congruence between vowel sounds only | | | *Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay* (DYLAN THOMAS, “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night") | | Onomatopoeia | use of words to imitate sounds | | | *Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle / Can patter out their hasty orisons.* (WILFRED OWEN, “Anthem for a Doomed Youth") | Table 3.4.: Phonological rhetorical figures #### Functions of sound patterns Rhyme and other sound patterns can have a wide range of diverse functions. Three of the most important are the structuring or organisational function, the function of enhancing the content of the poem by imitating aspects of external reality (for example, sounds, objects) and of internal processes (for example, perceptions and feelings), generally referred to as 'mimetic/evocative function', as well as general aesthetic functions. As in the case of the analysis of the morphological, syntactic and semantic levels, the central question when analysing these aspects is what contribution they make to the poem's potential of meaning. ### 5 Complex Morphological and Syntactic Structures: Word Repetition and Poetic Syntax #### Rhetorical figures In addition to thematic, structural and metrical characteristics, various rhetorical figures can also contribute to the form and the effects of a poem. Rhetorical figures occur plentifully in poems; however, they are also common in the dramatic and narrative genres as well as in non-fictional texts. As in the study of metrical phenomena, an inventory of terms dating back to Antiquity can be employed when analysing rhetorical figures. These terms can be categorised according to the dimension of language to which they refer. In addition to the ‘phonological figures' introduced above, which are employed on the level of sounds, there are also * 'morphological figures', i. e., rhetorical figures which work on the level of words and word formation, * 'syntactic figures', or rhetorical figures that are employed on the level of sentence structure (syntax), * 'semantic figures', or rhetorical figures involving the meanings of words or expressions, and * 'pragmatic figures', or rhetorical figures involving language use. #### Creating coherence Like the speech situation, the metric and stanzaic structure and the sound patterns, all rhetorical figures contribute considerably to the coherence of a poem. As poems generally have little in the way of characters or plot, they rely for their coherence on other features. Coherence is produced by certain elements in the content of the text, for example the circumstances of the speaker and/or the addressee, as well as all the thematic and formal elements that recur throughout the poem and link the various units of meaning together. #### Word repetition As was mentioned earlier, repetitions and recurrences do not only occur on the phonological level. Analogous complex structures can be found on other linguistic levels of many poems; these include the repetition of morphemes, words, groups of words, sentence components and entire sentences. Such structures are described as ‘morphological figures', and are presented in brief in the table below. The following table shows figures involving repetition: | | | | :-------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Exact word repetition | | | Anaphora | repetition of a word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses or lines of verse | | | *So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,* *So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.* (WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, “Sonnet 18") | | Epiphora | repetition of a word or group of words at the end of successive clauses or lines of verse | | | *The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,* *The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes,* (T. S. ELIOT, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock") | | Epanalepsis | repetition of words in close succession (‘immediate repetition’) or after other intervening words | | | *Peace, peace, thou hippopotamus! *(OGDEN NASH, “The Hippopotamus") *I celebrate myself, and sing myself* (WALT WHITMAN, “Song of Myself") | | Anadiplosis | repetition of end of the preceding clause/line of verse at the beginning of the next | | | *And gentle wishes long subdued,* *Subdued and cherished long!* (SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, “Love”) | | Repetition involving variation of repeated elements | | | Polyptoton | repetition of a word in different inflected forms | | | *Thus vainly thinking that she thinks me young* (WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, “Sonnet 138") | | Figura etymologica | repetition of a root in different forms | | | *I had [...] / Lit some lighter light of freer freedom* (OSCAR WILDE, “Flower of Love") | | Synonymy | repetition by the replacement of one word with another of the same meaning | | | *For thee I watch, whilst thou dost wake elsewhere* (WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, “Sonnet 61") | Table 3.5.: Morphological rhetorical figures #### Deviation of poetic syntax Rhetorical figures that are related to sentence structure (syntax), are subsumed under the heading 'syntactic figures'. A typical example is parallelism, i. e. the successive use of parallel clause or sentence structures. Linguistically oriented conceptions of poetry regard such syntactic equivalences and other notable features of poetic syntax as 'deviations' from 'normal syntax'. In addition to parallelism, particular forms of conjunction, deviations from the normal word order and figures involving omission are also common. The following table offers an overview of syntactic rhetorical figures and the terms applied to them (see LUDWIG 1981/2005: 115ff.). The following table lists parallelism structures: | | | | :-------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Parallelism between clauses or entire sentences | | | Parallelism: | succession of clauses or sentences of the same structure | | | *Happy my studies, when by these approved!* *Happier their author, when by these beloved!* | | *(ALEXANDER POPE,* “An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot") | | | Chiasmus: | reversal of structures in successive clauses | | | *With wealth your state, your mind with arts, improve* (JOHN DONNE, “The Canonization") | | Connection of sentences and sentence components | | | Asyndeton: | succession of words or phrases without conjoining words | | | *All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies,* *Despair, law, chance hath slain [...]* (JOHN DONNE, “Holy Sonnet VII”) | | Polysyndeton: | succession of words or phrases linked by conjoining words | | | *After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,* (T. S. ELIOT, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock") | | Deviation from normal word order | | | Inversion: | reversal of normal word order | | | *Here rests his head upon the lap of earth* (THOMAS GRAY, “Elegy, Written in a Country Churchyard") | | Hysteron proteron: | reversal of the logical succession of events | | | *I die! I faint! I fail!* (PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, “The Indian Serenade") | | Figures involving omission | | | Ellipsis: | omission of sentence components | | | *Authors are partial to their wit, 'tis true, / But are not Critics [partial] to their judgment too?* (ALEXANDER POPE, “An Essay on Criticism") | | Aposiopesis: | abrupt cessation before the end of an utterance | | | *His dying words – but when I reached* *That tenderest strain of all the ditty,* *My faltering voice and pausing harp* | | | *Disturbed her soul with pity!* (SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, “Love”) | | Zeugma: | application of one verb to more than one object in different senses | | | *Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,* *Dost sometimes counsel take – and sometimes Tea.* (ALEXANDER POPE, “The Rape of the Lock") | Table 3.6.: Syntactic rhetorical figures #### Functions of morphological and syntactic figures As was the case with the sound patterns, an analysis of the functions performed by repetitions and figures involving words and sentences is more important than their mere systematization and classification. These word repetitions and syntactic structures can acquire a semantic function by means of their interaction with the content of a poem, and can therefore generate a surplus of meaning within the poem. The main function of syntactic figures is “to establish relations of correspondence and opposition” (LUDWIG 1981/2005: 135). Like phonological equivalences, such grammatical figures are frequently employed to lend formal emphasis to certain elements of a poem's content. Alternatively, they can be set in conflict with semantic elements, as sources of tension or dissonance. #### Form as expression of content “Verbal parallelism resembles free verbal repetition in that it is physically sensible – i. e. audible to the listener, and visible to the reader. This means that the parallelism sets up a special relation between expression and content: the outer form of the message not only expresses underlying meaning but imitates its structure. [...] [v]erbal parallelism says the same thing twice over: the expression hammers home the content.” (LEECH 1969: 85) ### 6 Complex Semantic Structures: Imagery #### Imagery as a figurative mode of expression Imagery is also central to the analysis of poetry, and, thanks to the omnipresence of metaphors and other linguistic images (or rhetorical tropes), it is moreover an important analytical tool for various other genres and media such as film. The term 'imagery' subsumes all the rhetorical figures explained below, including metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche and synaesthesia. All are figurative forms of expression and complex semantic structures. In literary texts, these semantic figures are expressed in words, whereas in films they take the form of visual images. #### Structure of metaphor The term 'metaphor' refers to 'word pictures' that are used to convey a figurative meaning. The actual referent is not named directly; instead it is replaced or paraphrased using words from another field of reference. Metaphors are often described as shortened or covert comparisons, because, in contrast to the direct comparison or simile, the comparative particles 'like' or 'as' are not used: “Simile is an overt, and metaphor a covert comparison." (LEECH 1969: 156) #### Terms used in the analysis of metaphor Metaphor involves the removal of a word from its original semantic field and projection of this word onto an element from another semantic field. The original semantic field, from which the metaphorical term, or ‘vehicle', is taken, is described as the ‘source domain' or 'donor field', whereas the actual referent, or 'tenor', is situated in the ‘target domain'or‘recipient field'. Vehicle and tenor must be linked by some similarity of content or structure (a so-called 'tertium comparationis'), which connects the two ideas to form a metaphor. Metaphors are figures of similarity, because they operate by means of comparison and substitution, replacing one element with another. #### Transfer of characteristics The metaphorical process involves some kind of transfer of characteristics, because central semantic characteristics of the vehicle (also known as its 'salient features') are projected onto the tenor. The so-called 'substitution theory' is based on the view that, by means of a metaphor, one element is substituted for another and that in the course of this substitution a connection is established between the semantic characteristics of the vehicle and those of the tenor. Moreover, the tenor is re-presented or restructured by the metaphor. #### Semantic fields and image fields Like the term 'picture/image field' ('Bildfeld'), coined by HARALD WEINRICH, the expression ‘semantic field' can be used to describe the way in which metaphors are organised into overarching structures, and the specific relationship that connects the different elements of an image. By taking these different fields of meaning into account, we can give a more exact account of the semantic structures of the metaphorical process.