Literary Concepts for stylistic analysis of poetry

1. Literary Conceptsfor stylistic analysis of poetry ENG551 Lecture # 10

2. 1. Symbol : An object which stand for something else e.g. a dove symbolizes peace. In a poem/story it is a word which, while signifying something specific, also signifies something beyond itself. • Difference between image and symbol: what an image is associated with is stated in the poem, but with a symbol we have to infer the meaning and the associations. e.g. A poet who compares his or her lover to a rose is using a figurative image associating the lover with something form a different realm of experience

3. 1. Symbol • Symbols are only used when a writer wants to express an apprehension of something which is not directly observable in everyday world. A poet can start with an objet in the real world and make it symbolic by loading it with meaning which is not explicitly stated: e.g. Keats’s nightingale in “Ode to a Nightingale” becomes the symbol of eternity. It is something that he sees but invests it with tantalizing significance. • The danger with symbolism is the poem can lose touch with the ordinary world.

4. Example : William Blake Symbol of sick rose indirectly suggests: Something evil destroying something beautiful. Corrupt passion destroying beauty and innocence. O Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm That flies in the night, In the howling storm, Has found out thy bed Of crimson joy And his dark secret love Does thy life destroy

5. 2. Rhythm • Rhythm means the flow and movement of a line. Whether it goes fast or slow, is calm or troubled. • Rhythm and meaning cannot be separated. Thus: I faltering forward Leaves around me falling Wind oozing thin through the thorn for norward And the woman calling Cold images of falling leaves, north wind suggest mood of despair

6. John Donne The Sun Rising Busy old fool, unruly Sun, Why does through thus Through windows and through curtains call on us? • Language is colloquial, rhythm chatty, also angry Lively questioning manner

7. Rhyme Identity of sound between two words. Rhyme is usually employed to the end of word. But poets can make use of internal rhyme. Rhyme suggest harmony and order: The poet finds connections between words, if only at the level of sound, but the connection made suggests broader idea of finding an order in things.

8. Solitary Reaper Wordsworth Behold her, single in the field, Yon solitary Highland Lass! Reaping and singing by herself; Stop here, or gently pass! Alone she cuts and binds the grain, And sings a melancholy strain; O listen! for the Vale profound Is overflowing with the sound.

9. Rhyme • Rhyme can link problematic words. Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress” begins: Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, Lady, were no crime. “Time” and “crime” are troublesome ideas. But here they are absorbed into a couplet. Rhyme has an ability to unify and connect disparate entities, finding similarity in dissimilarities. How the use of rhyme contributes to the overall meaning and effect of the poem.

10. 3. Speaker/persona and audience Speaker/persona Audience Implied listener The readers When I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, Lodg'd with me useless, though my soul more bent (On His Blindness Milton • Poet himself • A character in the poem That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now: FràPandolf's hands Worked busily a day, and there she stands. Robert Browning My Last Duchess

11. 4. Situation/Setting • Place/location in a poem • The Real World Setting : Concrete setting : e.g. Country-side, room : • Imaginary setting : Abstract setting: e.g. a moment. Parting between lovers

12. 5. Mood & Tone • The feeling the poem conveys • Revealed through words, images • Happy, sad, exasperated, dejected, regretful etc. • Tone may be sarcastic, ironic, humorous, serious, melancholic etc. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, The Road Not Taken Robert Frost

13. Example for Analysis Dylan Thomas Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on that sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.