ANALYZE A POEM STYLISTICALLY

Introduction it is unlike doing literary analysis. Ho words and text create feelings and responses. Enables us to explain foreground. Difficult job. Key words: Analyse:verb: /an()lz/ Verb: analyze Examine (something) methodically and in detail, typically in order to explain and interpret it. synonyms: examine, inspect, survey, scan, study, scrutinize, look over, peruse.

Poem: /pm/ (noun) A piece of writing in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by particular attention to diction (sometimes involving rhyme), rhythm, and imagery. synonyms: verse, song, rhyme Stylistics: study of the devices in languages (such as rhetorical figures and syntactical patterns) that are considered to produce expressive or literary style. (Encyclopedia Britannica)

 Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts in regards to their linguistic and tonal style. As a discipline, it links literary criticism to linguistics. It does not function as an autonomous domain on its own, but it can be applied to an understanding of literature, journalism as well as linguistics. Sources of study in stylistics may range from canonical works of writing to popular texts, and from advertising copy to news, nonfiction, popular culture, as well as to political and religious discourse. Common features of style include the use of dialogue, including regional accents and individual dialects (or idiolects), the use of grammar, such as the observation of active voice and passive voice, the distribution of sentence lengths, the use of particular language registers, and so on. In addition, stylistics is a distinctive term that may be used to determine the connections between the form and effects within a particular variety of language. Therefore, stylistics looks at what is 'going on' within the language; what the linguistic associations are that the style of language reveals. (Wikipedia)

1 (listen) this a dog barks and how crazily houses eyes people smiles 5 faces streets steeples are eagerly tumbling through wonderful sunlight 10 - look selves, stir: writhe o-p-e-n-i-n-g are (leaves; flowers) dreams, come quickly come 15 run run with me now

jump shout (laugh dance cry sing)for it's Spring 20- irrevocably; and in earth sky trees :every where a miracle arrives 25 (yes) you and I may not hurry it with a thousand poems my darling 30 but nobody will stop it With All The Policemen In The World (E. E. Cummings, 73 Poems)

 celebration of the imminent arrival of Spring and all the joy and newness this brings Dynamic feeling References to new life Seems also an address to lover (Initial interpretation) looking at the words Examination of the lexical features Speaker appears to be saying that, like the arrival of Spring, his love is inevitable and cannot be stopped Lexical features: Use of open and close class words Open class carry the majority of meaning Close class act like glue and link open class in meaningful arrangements

Analysis

Table 1
NOUNS Dog Houses eyes people smiles faces streets steeples sunlight MAIN VERBS listen barks tumbling look stir writhe opening come (x2) run (x2) ADJECTIVES wonderful ADVERBS Crazily Easily Quickly irrevocably

leaves
flowers dreams earth sky

jump
shout laugh dance cry

trees
miracle poems policemen world 19

sing
[i]'s arrives hurry stop 21 1 4

 Poem consists of mainly noun and verbs Mostly concrete nouns (refer to physical objects) Divide nouns to 2 areas of meaning (semantic field) Table 2 Distribution of nouns within two basic semantic classes
NOUNS RELATED TO NATURE NOUNS RELATED TO HUMANS dog, sunlight, leaves, flowers, earth, sky, houses, eyes, people, smiles, faces, trees, miracle, world streets, steeples, dreams, poems, policemen

Interconnection between nature and man Verbs create a sense of immediacy Finite verbs are in present tense (simple and/ or progressive) indicate the ongoing ('stretched') nature of the actions contributes to the idea of the inevitability of nature No unusual words No unconventional affixation

Deviation and Parallelism constant use of lower case letters [31] is heavily fore grounded by each word beginning with a capital letter emphasizes the idea that nothing is able to stop the progression of Spring Or the poet's love for his addressee 'policemen are a stereotypical example of powerful people grammatical deviations (- 'o-p-e-n-i-n-g/ (leaves; flowers)) leaves and flowers are physically opening at the same time as the poet's dreams are opening metaphorically of vowel sounds in words in close proximity to each other how crazily houses (3) eyes people smiles steeples are eagerly (4) wonder/ful sunlight (6) , come quickly come (8,9) sing) for it's Spring (14)

Congruence of Foregrounding in the Final Stanza Elements foregrounded: Internal deviation (initial capitalism) lack of any sort of phonological parallelism They are all the result of internal deviation Because they all conform to our normal expectations of written language Result is the final message of the poem is made extremely clear

 how we can use stylistics to uphold an interpretation of a poem how it can also highlight elements of a poem that we might otherwise miss It also enables us to speculate with more certainty on precisely why E. E. Cummings chooses to use such seemingly odd stylistic techniques For example deviant punctuation is linked to the foregrounding of dynamic verbs explaining why we perceive so much 'movement' in the poem There are particular features of the poem, though, which I have not been able to account for. For example, I can't explain the comma between 'selves' and 'stir' in line 11 In general, linguistic features of a poem are directly related to meaning mine is not the only interpretation which could be given to the poem. systematic analytical technique like stylistics ensures that interpretation can be explicit and grounded in fact That is how we know why a text makes you feel a particular way stylistics is a useful tool for anybody interpreting literary texts.

conclusion