ISSN:-2230-7850
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Indian Streams Research Journal
Abstract:An attempt has been made to apply the stylistic techniques and methods to analyse the select poems
of William Wordsworth namely “She dwelt among the untrodden ways” and “The Solitary Reaper” with a
view of guiding the young students in decoding the literary language which is very often twisted and
complicated for the sake of foregrounding. The analysis is made under the aspects of lexical, syntactical,
semantic and phonological patterns as they are the major linguistic elements and tools for a deep
infiltration. This analysis is helpful in understanding the basic concept, mood, tone and the intention of the
STYLISTIC ANALYSIS ON SELECT POEMS
OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AND ITS
PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
Vethanayagam Jude Naveenraj1 and R. Saranya2
1
Ph D Research Scholar
Associate Professor, Centre of Advanced Study in Linguistics , Annamalai University
Annamalainagar ,Tamilnadu, India.
2
poet in an objective way. The main advantage in
stylistic analysis is its methodical approach
towards finding the meaning. It is not the
personal and biased interpretation, but on
contrary, it leads to the systematic analysis of
literary text in a student-oriented approach.
Hence, it is powerful in English language
teaching contexts.
Keywords:
Stylistic Techniques, Lexical, Syntactical,
Semantic And Phonological Patterns, Linguistic
Elements, Stylistic Analysis, Methodical
Approach, Student-oriented Approach.
www.isrj.org
Vethanayagam Jude Naveenraj
Ph D Research Scholar.
STYLISTIC ANALYSIS ON SELECT POEMS OF WILLIAM ..............................
1.INTRODUCTION:
The word stylistics is derived from style. Stylistics is a branch which defines different styles. It
refers to the study of appropriate use of words or language in a sentence or writing. Widdowson defines
stylistics as ? the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation. He added by saying that stylistics
is the link between literary criticism and linguistics. He also says that stylistics involves both literary
criticism and linguistics, as its morphological construction suggests: the “style” is relating it to literary
styles and the “istics” refers to the latter part of linguistics, thus meaning the linguistic associations in it.
Style has different meanings for different people. Carter (1989, p 14) believes that style generally depends
on linguistic levels. Due to these levels every text and writing is different from the other, hence every genre
is different. Haynes (1989, p.3) is of the view that the study of style is the study of distinctions looking at
what was said against what might have been said. Style is also called as variety. Style refers as the manner of
expression which is different in various contexts. The main task of a teacher in a classroom is to show the
student show linguistic elements can be used to extract the meaning in the literary language.
2. STYLISTICS
According to Leech (1969) ? style is the way in which something is spoken, written or performed.
It refers to use of words, sentence structures and speaking style. Broadly, style is related to the personality of
the person. Style reflects the thoughts of person's mind. It describes the way of person's speaking and
writing. It is derived from the Latin word "elocutio" which means "style" and means "lexis" in Greek.
“Elocutio” refers to the oral and written style of the language. Leech and Short (1981, p. 10) is of the view
that the word “style” has an uncontroversial meaning. It is a way in which language is being used in a given
context for a given purpose.
Different scholars define stylistics in different ways. According to Freeman (1971, p.1)
? stylistics, is asub-discipline which started in the second half of the 20th century. According to Leech and
Short (1981, p.13) ? Stylistics is the (linguistic) study of style, is rarely undertaken for its own sake, simply
as an exercise in describing what use is made of language. They also said that the major aim of studying the
stylistics is to explore the meanings and understand the linguistic features of the text. Short and Candlin
(1989, p.183) said that ? stylistics is a linguistic approach to the study of the literary texts. It thus embodies
one essential part of the general course - philosophy; that of combining language and literary study.
Widdowson (1975, p.3) defines stylistics: ? the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation. He
said that which differs stylistics from the literary criticism and linguistics is its linking technique. He also
suggests that stylistics is in between linguistics and literary criticism and its function is to link between two.
So, generally, it deals with both the literary and linguistic factors. Carter (1988, p.161) also thinks as
Widdowson thinks. He also said that stylistics is a bridge (link) discipline between linguistics and literature.
Stylistics is the study of the devices in languages such as rhetorical terms and syntactical devices that are
taken to produce expressive or literary style. Stylistics is, therefore, a study which conjoins both literary
criticism on the one hand and linguistics on the other as its morphological structure suggests: the =style ‘ is
relating to literary criticism and the =istics ‘is to linguistics. Widdowson (1975, p.3) said that stylistics
expresses means whereas language and literature as a subjects.
3. LEVELS OF STYLISTIC ANALYSIS
The levels of stylistics analysis are identified as:
3.1 Graphology:
Leech (1969, p.39) claims that graphology exceeds orthography. ? It refers to the whole writing
system: punctuation and paragraphing as well as spacing? . According to Crystal and Davy (1969, p.18) Graphology is the analogous study of a languages writing system or orthography as seen in the various
kinds of handwriting or topography? . These are the formalized rules of writing. Alabi (2007, p.170) added
that "a graphological discussion of style among other features entails the foregrounding of quotation marks,
ellipses periods, hyphens, contracted forms, special structures, the full stop, the colon, the comma, the
semicolon, the question mark, the dash, lower case letters, gothic and bold prints, capitalization, small
print, spacing, italics etc". In other words, it deals with the systematic formation, structure and punctuation
in the sentence.
3.2 Phonology:
Lodge (2009, p.8) is of the view that ? phonology is the study of linguistic systems. Specifically,
the way in which sound represents, differences of meaning in a language. Ofuya (2007,p.14) believes that
? phonology describes the ways in which speech sounds are organized in English into a system. Phonology
basically deals with the sound patterns, the rhyming scheme and utterance of the word in the sentence.
Phonological devices are: rhyme elements, alliteration, consonance and assonance.
3.3 Morphology:
Mark and Kirsten (2005, p.1) said that ? Morphology refers to the mental system involved in
word formation or to the branch of linguistics that deals with words, their internal structure, and how they
are formed. Morphological level deals with the construction of the word by adding prefixes and suffixes to
the root words.
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STYLISTIC ANALYSIS ON SELECT POEMS OF WILLIAM ..............................
3.4 Lexico-Syntax:
It is the combination of two different words ? Lexis and ? syntax. Lexis means the vocabulary
which is used in a language or in any writing for any purpose. Syntax means “sentence construction”: how
words group together to make phrases and sentences. So, it is used in the construction of the sentence as
stylistics is used in literary style. Lexico-Syntactic patterns may be obtained through various means which
include unusual or inverted word order, omission of words and repetition. According to Tallerman(1998,
p.1), "Lexico-Syntactic choices are also obtained through devices such aspiling of usual collocates,
unusual collocates, archaic words, particular parts of speech, metaphor, simile, oxymoron etc".
4 ELEMENTS IN STYLISTIC ANALYSIS
The elements of the levels of analysis are discussed briefly:
4.1 Graphological Devices Include:
Punctuation are the marks used in writing that divide sentences and phrases. It is the system of using the
punctuation marks. These marks include full stop, comma, colon, semicolon, question mark, exclamation
mark, apostrophe, hyphen, ellipsis, quotation marks, parentheses, brackets, etc.
2. Paragraphing: Paragraph means a separate part which contains information, usually of several lines or
sentences. The first sentence of a paragraph starts on a new line.
Phonological devices Include:
3. Rhyme elements: It consists of different patterns of rhymes. The stressed pattern and the rhyming
scheme are followed in the poetry.
4. Alliteration: It is the use of same letters or sounds at the beginning of words that are close together. It was
used systematically in Old English poetry but in Modern English poetry is generally used for a particular
effect.
5. Consonance: It is a half rhyme in which final consonants are repeated but with different preceding
vowels.
6. Assonance: It is the effect created when two syllables in words that are closed together have the same
vowel sound but different consonants or the same consonants but different vowels.
7. Onomatopoeia: It is the effect produced when the words used contain the similar sounds to the noises
they describe: "murmuring of innumerable bees".
Morphological devices Include:
8. Affixes: It is a process of forming new words by putting morphemes before some words. It further divides
into prefixes or suffixes. These are two popular types of morphological operations. Prefixes generally alter
the meanings of the words and suffixes changes its part of speech.
9. Coinages: It is the process of forming new words from the existing ones.
Lexico-syntactic devices include:
10. Anastrophe: =anastrophe is the inversion of the natural or usual word order‘. The use of anastrophe
secures emphasis and focuses the readers’ attention.
11. Parenthesis: =it entails the insertion of some verbal unit (extra information, and after thought or a
comment) in a position that interrupts the normal syntactical glow of the sentence.
12. Ellipsis: =Ellipsis entails the deliberate omission of a word or words, which are readily implied by the
content: It is used to create brevity reemphasis or ambiguity.
13. Asyndeton: This is the deliberate omission of conjunctions between a series of related clauses.A
syndeton produces a hurried rhythm in the sentence.
14. Anaphora: The use of words that refers to or replaces another word used earlier in the sentence.
15. Epizeuxis: Repetition of a word or phrase without any breaks at all.
5. INTRODUCTION OF THE POEM:
The poem 'Solitary Reaper' is a poem with rustic quality written by Wordsworth when Industrial
Revolution was taking momentum in England predicting a huge mass movement from agriculture bound
villages to the factory based cities.
Wordsworth had two notions in his mind while composing this poem. One is to predict the down
fall of village life resulting in health hazards by living in the congested cities with inadequate space and
natural resources. The other idea is to reach the public especially the ordinary people with his simple
language use, thus making a sharp contrast against the classical traditions of writing. He mainly focused on
the usage of simple language. He said that poetry should be written in simple language or the language of
the common man. As he explains in his preface to the third edition:
BIOGRAPHY OF THE POET:
Wordsworth is very famous for his nature poems. According to him, man's inner feelings can
better be polished and strengthened by nature. He also thinks that man is near to the nature. Man gets real
satisfaction, knowledge and pleasure through nature. He lived near the beautiful Lake District where he
spent almost all his life. He wrote many poems on nature. Nature inspired him a lot. In his nature poems, we
find deep descriptions of land, rivers, mountains, flowers and birds etc. which are full of beauty, colors and
imaginations. His nature poems also reveal his immense feelings of happiness and thoughts in visualizing
and listens the creatures of nature. Although he loves nature very much but is unsatisfied by the human
society. Wordsworth‘s concepts of Romanticism and nature are well described in the poem ''Solitary
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Reaper''. The poet sits calmly in a forest, enjoying birds, trees, and flowers. These elements of nature are the
source of pleasure of "human soul". He compares the human's disharmony with the harmony of the nature.
In the preface of Lyrical Ballard, Wordsworth defined the poetry as ? the spontaneous overflow of
powerful feeling? arising from ? emotions recollected in tranquility? . He wrote this poem after
inspiring by the charm and beauty of the nature. He describes his feelings recollected in the spring
scenarios. He describes the clear and graphic and beautiful picture of early spring: flowers, birds, new green
branches of trees and the cool breeze, while explaining these facts of nature; he bewails the disappointment
and disharmony of human society. In the poem, he shows the great contrast between the pleasures and joys
of the natural world and the materialistic world. In fact Wordsworth‘s use of language and rhythm help to
construct such contrast which reveals the poet‘s ? spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings".
STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF The Solitary Reaper by William Wordsworth
The first poem we would be analyzing is a poem familiar one to begin with and we can see what
stylistics can do to the existing literary criticism on it. Our first task is to chunking the similar words under
the major lexical words in order to get the trend of the poem, theme, attitude, tone and the mental structure
of the poet.
LEXICAL ANALYSIS:
The major lexical words that may give clue to the meaning are:
1.Solitude: solitary, single, alone by herself.
2.Music and song: singing, sings, sang, strain, sound, lays, notes, music, silence, chant, voice, number, lay.
3.Pleasure and pain: melancholy, thrilling, plaintive, unhappy, sorrow, loss, pain
4.Space and time: yon, here, Arabian sands, spring time, farthest, Hebrides, old, far off, long ago, today, hill,
long after
5.Adjectives: some, no one, whatever
6.Verbs of action: behold, stop, pass, reap, cuts and binds, listen chant heard, tell, bend, mounted.
7.Collocations: melancholy strain, welcome notes, plaintive numbers, humble lay, old unhappy far off
things.
8.Words joined by ‘and’, ‘or’ (doubling): reaping and singing, cuts and binds, loss or pain, motionless and
still.
SYNTAXICAL ANALYSIS
Use of Imperative: The poem begins with an imperative construction and the whole of the first stanza
employs verbs in the imperative form. The standard purpose of the imperative form is to command or
request. But, here the poet uses for calling the attention- a visual image is created as if someone is calling to
pay attention on something.
1.Inversion: There are three instances of it in the poem. They are ‘ alone she cuts and binds’, And over the
sickle bending, ‘This music in my heart I bore’
Here, the inversions are used for the purpose of emphasis. Poet deviates from the normal sentence
structure to give importance to certain ideas by putting the emphasized word in the beginning.
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
This is a symmetric poem of four stanza each stanza divided thematically more or less into halves
of four lines each. Between the stanzas, sentence structure changes to suit the changing requirements of the
poet. Thus, in the first stanza inversion is used to catch our attention while in the second, which begins with
a negative comparison construction. ‘A voice so thrilling ne’er was heard’ from this declarative sentence we
move on to an interrogative sentence where the poet wants to know the theme of the song. After a couple of
guesses he uses surmise as a structural device for the progression of the poem. The first stanza employs a
series of coordinate constructions. It is used to narrate speaker’s views and describe the events.
VOICE AND TENSE
The poet uses passive voice to give importance to the music in the second stanza and it is the shift
from the reaper who was important in the first stanza. The significant point about the poet’s use of tense is
that we find all tenses used in the poem past, present and future as far as the time reference is concerned“has been and may be again”. Postmodification has been systematically used (behold her, single in the field,
the vale profound, nettles long ago etc.) it has also been used for effects and highlights of its significance as
well as to use it as narrative device in the context of reminiscences as the present one. In the analysis of this
sort, then, we can, corroborate, many of the conclusions of standard criticism in a systematic and in a
convincing way.
FOREGROUNDING
The differentiating factor between poetic and non- poetic language has been termed by the Prague school of
literature as “Foregrounding”. The function of foregrounding is to attract the readers’ attention towards the
subject matter of the poem. Linguistic deviations have a very important psychological consequence for the
reader because they are easily noticeable or foregrounded. It requires then our attention to take note of those
parts of texts that are heavily foregrounded.
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This poem begins with the imperative “behold her”
“No nightingale did ever chant” is an extreme comparison to highlight the melody of the music the women
over the sickle sang.
6. The stylistic Analysis: She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways
The poem "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways" is very simple. It consists of three short
stanzas. The first two stanzas focus on Lucy while she is still alive, and the last stanza tells the reader of
Lucy's death and the poet's response to it. In these short stanzas, the poet tells of his admiration and singular
devotion to Lucy and his utter despair over her death.
Characteristics of Poem
l
Using simple diction
l
It is simple only in appearance.
l
Its language is so lucid and "ordinary",
l
Economical stanzas of four lines each with every second line (abab) rhyming give the poem simplicity,
like the subject itself.
l
used the typical ballad meter of iambic stressed/unstressed, in which the first and third lines typically
have four stresses, and the second and fourth have three stresses.
l
Words mostly consist of one syllable
His purpose in writing this seems to be twofold. The poem is his own pensive meditations or
reflections about his feelings of loss, particularly in losing Lucy. And the other purpose is to elevate her
status by offering her this ode in which he praises the unrecognized beauty of this ideal woman.
Lexical Analysis of the Poem
l
In the first stanza, lines like, "none to praise," "very few to love," and the word "untrodden" tell the reader
that Lucy was nobody to everyone except the poet.
l
In the second stanza, Wordsworth's aim is to show her innocence and beauty again. He uses two simple
metaphors to emphasize these qualities. "A violet by a mossy stone" and "Fair as a star, when only one is
shining in the sky."
l
" Diction is also used here to create impact. She is a flower unnoticed, "half-hidden from the eye." So, she
is not the beautiful violet out in full glory for the world to see but is half-hidden by a stone instead.
l
Her isolation is also revealed in the second metaphor. She is "fair as a star," but when there is only one star
in the entire sky. She is pure and rare. Some speculate that Wordsworth is referring to the star Venus who
comes out all alone after sunset and is hence, the first star.
l
In the third stanza, Wordsworth tells the reader of Lucy's death. He doesn't just say she died. He says,
"She ceased to be," which creates greater impact with the typical expectancy of an infinitive. Again, the
diction of anonymity is shown in that she lived "unknown" and "few could know."
l
However, in the last two lines, her significance to Wordsworth is made very clear with "and oh, the
difference to me!" Wordsworth clearly experiences a great sense of loss at her death. This last line also
emphasizes her "only one" status as the only star in the sky.
l
The exclamation point at the end of the poem puts even more emphasis on his feelings of love and loss,
even though they seem sparsely understated.
Application of metaphor (figurative speech)
His two metaphors serve to illustrate the contrast in her. In some ways, she is a half-hidden flower
and in other ways the only star in the sky. In either case, she is completely isolated from others and almost
seems a part of Nature. Besides metaphors, there are also other literary techniques used to emphasize
portions of the text. However, the sparse diction is part of the appeal so there is not an abundance of
elements.
Phonological Analysis
Alliteration is used in lines like "half-hidden." Sibilance is used throughout with lines like "as a
star" and "sky." The sibilance serves to emphasize the remoteness of the subject and the poem itself. It
serves to emphasize the lonely atmosphere and woman that Wordsworth describes.
Assonance is used in almost every line of the poem. "Dove, " "none," "love," "mossy stone" "I
shining," "sky," "unknown," "know," "ceased," "be," "she, " "me" and many more. The use of this repeated
assonance gives the poem a musical or nursery rhyme quality about it.
Verbs are used often in the infinitive form to signal hope. "To love," "to praise," and "to be" are
examples.
In many ways, this poem is a beautiful elegy. As Wooding says, "If all elegies are mitigations of
death, the Lucy poems are also meditations on simple beauty, by distance made more sweet and by death
preserved in distance" (Woodring 48). William Wordsworth has shown the reader through economical
diction and beautiful simplicity his love for this neglected woman whose beauty and dignity were
overlooked by everyone but the poet. From his short descriptions, the reader almost feels that she can
picture this woman in her mind and feels sadness at the passing of one so largely ignored by everyone but
the poet.
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7. CONCLUSION
The choice of words by the writer or the poet plays a very important role in meaning making. It
helps the reader to understand the message the poet is trying to pass on. Stylistics, by this analysis has
shown that there is a distinction between poetic and non- poetic language as a means of defining literature.
8. PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS
The ultimate aim of this work is to explore ways in which language use has been integrated in the
poem. It is also aimed at analyzing some of the specific characteristics that give the poem its identity. This
refers to the recurrent features of stylistics employed by the writer. In other words, this work will be
concerned with striking and marked use of words in the poem in order to enhance effective transfer of
message. The effects and functions of the stylistic elements as regards the poem will be looked at in the
analysis.
9. SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This work shall be exclusively stylistic, and analysis will be conducted through the use of the
following levels of analysis: lexico-syntactic patterns and choices, phonology, graphology and
morphology. Analysis will be conducted using the stylistic elements in each of the above mentioned levels
of analysis, so that it could provide a guide and be relevant to future researchers in a related field.
10. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The sample taken for analysis represents only one genre of English literature. The other genres
such as novels, drama have not been taken for the stylistic analysis.
Appendix
Sh e Dwelt Am ong the Un trodd en W ays
The Sol itary Reap er
B ehold her, single in the field,
Yon solitary Highl and Lass!
Reaping and singing by herself;
Stop here, or gent ly pass!
Alone she cut s and binds the grain,
And sing s a melanchol y strain;
O listen! for the Vale profoun d
Is overflow ing with the soun d.
No Nigh tingale did ever chaun t
More welcom e notes to weary band s
Of travellers in some shady haunt,
Am on g Arabian sands:
A vo ice so thrilling ne'er was heard
In spring-time from the Cucko o-bird,
Breaki ng the silence of the seas
Am on g the farthest Hebrides.
She dwelt among the un trod den ways
Beside the springs of Dove,
Maid wh om there were none to praise
And ver y few to love:
A violet by a m osy ton e
Half hi dd en from the eye!
---Fair as a star, wh en on ly one
Is shining in the sky.
She lived un kn ow n, and few could kn ow
When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and , oh ,
T he difference to me!
By W illiam W ordsworth
Will no on e tell me what she sing s?-P erhaps the plaintive nu mbers flow
F or old, un happ y, far -off thi ng s,
And battles lon g ago:
Or is it some m ore hu mble lay,
F amiliar m atter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain,
That has been, and m ay be again?
Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang
As if her son g cou ld have no end ing ;
I saw her sing ing at her work,
And o'er the sickl e bending; -I listened, mot ion less and still;
And , as I m ou nted up the hill,
T he music in m y heart I bo re,
Long after it was heard no more.
By William W ordsworth
REFERENCES:
1.Geoffrey N. Leech A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry Foreign Language Teaching and Research
Press 2000
2.Leech, G. (1969), ? A linguistic guide to English Poetry? , London: Longman.52
Richard Bradford StylisticsRoutledge London and New York 1997
3.Joanna Thornborrow& Shan WareingPatterns in Language: Stylistics for Students of Language and
Literature Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press 2002
http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/William_Wordsworth.
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