Short Velocity the Dance Is Not Over and Builds Them Up Again Poem
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An example of a stylistic analysis
The following example text has been written by Dan McIntyre, i of the course tutors for the lecture/seminar-based course at Lancaster Academy that mirrors this web-based course.
Doing Stylistics: An Analysis of '(listen)' by Eastward. Due east. Cummings
1. Introduction
If y'all're new to stylistics information technology's frequently hard to know where to brainstorm when attempting a stylistic analysis. Many people come up to stylistics having studied English language literature, which demands a very different ready of skills. Analysing a text stylistically is unlike doing a 'literary' analysis as it needs to exist much more objective and rooted in fact. With stylistics we aim to explain how the words of a text create the feelings and responses that we become when we read them. What I aim to do hither is demonstrate how to go about doing stylistics by analysing a poem past the American poet E. E. Cummings. I will prove y'all how such an assay might be structured, how to chronicle linguistic elements to meaning, and how to provide an objective account of your initial interpretation of a text.
2. (heed) past E. Eastward. Cummings
How do you begin a stylistic analysis? Well, information technology's a good idea to start with your initial thoughts and feelings about the text you're going to analyse. And so when you practice the actual analysis you tin can run across if you were right or wrong in your initial interpretation. Sometimes the linguistic structure of the text volition not support your estimation, in which case you may have to reconsider this in the low-cal of your analysis. This is why stylistics is useful equally a method of interpreting texts. Let'south begin, then, by looking at our chosen poem.
'(listen)' is taken from E. E. Cummings' 1964 collection 73 Poems, of which it is number 63. None of the poems in the collection have titles but are instead referred to by number. However, for ease of reference I have used the first line of the verse form as a title. A transcript of the poem is given on page 2.
The poem '(heed)' is typical of Cummings' style and contains some striking irregularities of form in comparison to 'traditional' poesy. You can discover, for case, the lack of capitalisation where you lot might normally look it, the foreign use of punctuation and the seemingly odd structure of particular phrases. Cummings' poems all use lots of difference and '(listen)' is no exception. One of the reasons for this is Cummings' want to break with more conventional poetic traditions. However, his utilize of deviation is not but for shock value, and the linguistic choices he makes are by no means arbitrary. Despite this, such extreme divergence can make information technology difficult for us to translate his poems. In the past, some critics have fifty-fifty disregarded his seemingly odd use of language, challenge that it is of no interpretative significance. R. P. Blackmur, for example, a critic writing in 1954, had this to say about the foreign linguistic choices in Cummings' poems:
…extensive consideration of these peculiarities today has very trivial importance, carries almost no reference to the meaning of the poems.
(Blackmur 1954: 320)
| 63 | |
| [1] | (listen) this a canis familiaris barks and |
| [five] | faces streets tumbl ing through wonder |
| [10] | - await - are(leaves;flowers)dreams ,come quickly come |
| [15] | run run it'southward Spring |
| [20] | - irrevocably; |
| [25] | (yes) you and I may non |
| [30] | but nobody will stop it |
| | |
| | |
The view that Blackmur gives is now extremely dated. What he refers to as 'peculiarities' are in fact highly meaning linguistic deviations, and it is important for the states to presume that every element of any slice of writing has a possible interpretative significance. Yous might ask if this is actually the case. Do we actually infer meaning from every bit of a text? Well, the evidence nosotros have would suggest that we practice. Researchers such as Van Peer (1980; 1986) take found that readers do indeed pick upwardly on the smallest details of a text and use them to construct a meaningful estimation. A stylistic analysis of our poem volition enable u.s.a. to explain the foregrounding within it thoroughly, and will also show how stylistics can be a valuable tool for the literary critic.
Let'southward start with an initial interpretation of the poem. Like many of Cummings' poems, '(listen)' appears to be a celebration of the imminent arrival of Spring and all the joy and newness this brings. In that location is a dynamic feel to the poem and, of course, along with the references to new life we tin note the related sexual connotations; the verse form seems also to exist an address to a lover to share the poet's happiness, and to acknowledge the inevitability of the natural globe and all that this encompasses. The themes of Jump and sexual practice, and nature and human being are thus intertwined, creating the quirky humour typical of Cummings - in this example, a double-significant plea to a lover to let nature take its course. The poem is not overtly descriptive in its treatment of Jump. Instead we seem to be presented with a set of random images (e.yard. houses, smiles, people, streets) and deportment. We'll look at the significance of this factor in creating what we perceive to be a poem virtually Jump in department iii.1. To sum upward, and so, the speaker appears to exist saying that, like the arrival of Jump, his love is inevitable and cannot be stopped.
'(listen)' is not a specially hard poem in terms of the complexity of the subject thing. What is more difficult is to relate the numerous 'strange' stylistic features that Cummings has called to utilize to our full general interpretation. Nosotros can begin to do this by looking at the nigh foregrounded features of the verse form; that is, the $.25 of the verse form that stand out because they seem unusual. Then, now that we've got an initial interpretation of the poem, nosotros can movement on and try a thorough linguistic analysis of information technology.
3. Analysis
My initial estimation of '(listen)' came about solely every bit a outcome of looking at the words in the verse form. I wasn't, for example, thinking specially about the deviant grammatical and graphological elements. An examination of the lexical features, then, is perhaps a adept identify to starting time with a more than detailed linguistic analysis. We will consider how other poetic effects contribute to the overall significant of the poem later on.
3.1 Lexical Features
Let's first of all consider the open up class words in the poem. Open class words are those which carry the majority of significant in a language, as opposed to closed class (grammatical) words such as determiners (eastward.g. this, that, the) and prepositions (e.g. in, at, on). Airtight class words act like sentence 'gum' and link together open form words in meaningful arrangements (sentences). Table 1 shows how the open class words are distributed throughout the poem, and whether they are nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs.
Table 1 Distribution of open class words in '(heed)'
| NOUNS | MAIN VERBS | ADJECTIVES | ADVERBS |
|---|---|---|---|
| dog | listen | wonderful | crazily |
| houses | barks | easily | |
| eyes | tumbling | quickly | |
| people | look | irrevocably | |
| smiles | stir | ||
| faces | writhe | ||
| streets | opening | ||
| steeples | come (x2) | ||
| sunlight | run (x2) | ||
| leaves | jump | ||
| flowers | shout | ||
| dreams | laugh | ||
| globe | dance | ||
| heaven | cry | ||
| copse | sing | ||
| miracle | [i]'southward | ||
| poems | arrives | ||
| policemen | hurry | ||
| earth | terminate | ||
| xix | 21 | 1 | 4 |
We can meet from the in a higher place table that the poem consists mainly of nouns and verbs. The nouns are mostly concrete - that is, they refer to physical objects - and only two of the nouns are abstract (dreams and miracle). Information technology is possible to divide the nouns into two crude areas of meaning, or semantic fields. Tabular array 2 shows how we might do this:
Table 2 Distribution of nouns within 2 basic semantic classes
| NOUNS RELATED TO NATURE | NOUNS RELATED TO HUMANS |
|---|---|
| domestic dog, sunlight, leaves, flowers, globe, sky, trees, miracle, world | houses, eyes, people, smiles, faces, streets, steeples, dreams, poems, policemen |
The mixture in the poem of nouns belonging to these two dissimilar semantic classes could be said to business relationship for what nosotros perceive equally an interconnection between nature and man. My initial impression of the poem was that there was some kind of conflict between these 2 elements and this is explained in part by the above table. The ii abstract nouns, dreams and miracle, could belong to either category and might be seen to connect the 2 semantic classes.
If we now await at the verbs in the poem we tin see that they create a sense of immediacy as we read it. They also contribute to our understanding of it every bit an address to another person. All the verbs which are marked for tense (finite verbs) are in the present tense. And then we have present simple verbs such every bit 'barks' [two], 'is' [19] and 'arrives' [24] and present progressive forms such every bit 'are [eagerly] tumb/ling' [six/7/8] and 'o-p-east-northward-i-due north-g/are' [12/13]. In improver to helping to establish the sense of immediacy, the progressive present participles ('tumbling' and 'opening') indicate the ongoing ('stretched') nature of the actions. This contributes to the idea of the inevitability of nature - Spring is arriving even as the poet speaks. This is also reinforced by the four adverbs of style, which convey a sense of speed (quickly), excitement (crazily, eagerly) and inevitability (irrevocably).
The sense we go of the verse form being an accost to another person is achieved through the utilise of directive verbs. 12 of the verbs in the poem take this form (listen, await, come up (x2), run (x2), jump, shout, express joy, dance, cry, sing). Directives can be used for commanding (Practice your essay!), inviting (Come in), warning (Listen your head) etc. In '(listen)' they appear to be used (ane) to plead with, and to urge the addressee to join in with, the speaker'south celebration of Spring, and (2) to share in, and contribute to, his feelings of happiness (for instance, in the lines 'run run/with me now' and 'sing)for it'southward Leap'). Note, likewise, that in the terminal stanza there is a 2nd person pronoun ('you') and that in line 29 this addressee is referred to as 'my darling', suggesting a romantic human relationship between the speaker and whomever he/she2 is addressing.
At that place are no unusual words in the poem - no neologisms, for example, and no unconventional affixation, which Cummings ofttimes uses in his other poems. However, some of the words are bundled on the page in a seemingly foreign fashion. Wonderful, for example, runs across 2 lines and equally a consequence is highly foregrounded. Dividing the word across the morphemes (wonder and ful) allows us 2 interpretative furnishings. We commencement read the discussion as the noun wonder, and and so every bit the describing word wonderful. The graphological departure here foregrounds the word and creates a density of meaning. Since divergence is such an credible feature in '(mind)', it is worth examining it in more particular. Nosotros tin as well consider parallelism and the foregrounding furnishings that this creates.
three.2 Deviation and Parallelism
Perhaps the most striking aspect of deviation in '(mind)' is the almost constant use of lower example messages where we would usually expect capitals. This though is typical of Cumming'due south poetry and so we tin can't attribute any great significance to it, other than his want to break with normal convention. However, i of the furnishings of this graphological divergence is to foreground any instances where Cummings does use capitalisation. Because of this we tin infer that the word 'Bound' in line 19 is an of import concept in the verse form, since information technology is the first word nosotros come beyond with initial capitalisation. As well, the final line of the poem [31] is heavily foregrounded by each give-and-take showtime with a capital letter. This emphasises the idea being expressed here; namely that nothing (least of all poetry) and nobody is able to finish the progression of Bound or the poet's honey for his addressee - not even conventionally powerful people such as policemen. Cummings mayhap chooses 'policemen' because they are a stereotypical example of powerful people.
In addition to the graphological deviations, there are also a number of grammatical deviations in the poem. Many of these occur through Cummings' tendency to use punctuation where it would not ordinarily be necessary. And so, for instance, we go phrases being bracketed where in that location is no grammatical demand, in guild to limited the notion of two events happening at the same time. An example would be in lines 12 and 13 - 'o-p-east-north-i-n-1000/are(leaves;flowers)dreams'. Here, the bracketed part of line thirteen seems to mean that leaves and flowers are physically opening at the aforementioned time equally the poet's dreams are opening metaphorically. Again, this contributes to our agreement of the poem as being very agile and dynamic. Annotation the additional semantic departure here - dreams cannot actually open and then this office of the line is foregrounded likewise, perhaps to advise that with the arrival of Spring the speaker becomes more than aware of his dreams and aspirations, more 'open' in the sense of receptive and unguarded.
Cummings tries to capture the idea of a multitude of thoughts occurring simultaneously by breaking grammatical conventions. In addition to his apply of bracketed phrases, groups of nouns are ofttimes run together without punctuation (e.yard. lines three to 6 and line 22), and we too find both definite and indefinite reference within the aforementioned clause ('this a dog barks'; a possible caption for this is that this is used to show that the speaker is referring to a specific dog, but a is likewise used considering the speaker is non familiar with the animal - i.east. is not aware of its proper noun. By using both definite and indefinite reference the poet is able to convey this idea.). Such features, retrieve, are what Blackmur (1954) dismissed equally 'peculiarities'. Withal, if nosotros examine these closely we can see that there is really a systematicity to the deviations, and that they do indeed contribute to significant. We tin come across an case of this in lines 7 and viii. Here, Cummings divides the word tumbling and then that the progressive morpheme -ing appears on a separate line. This foregrounds the verb and also creates a homological outcome, or what Short (2000) refers to as a 'graphology-symbolic' result. This is where a word or a piece of text actually looks similar the concept that it represents - for example, if I were to write the word 
like this. In lines 7 and viii the verb appears to 'tumble' from one line to the next and then we understand the action to be an important concept within the verse form. Similarly, in line 12 Cummings uses deviant punctuation to split up the progressive participle 'opening' into its component messages ('o-p-due east-due north-i-north-grand'). Again this foregrounds the verb and creates the homological effect of the word actually opening. Observe too that the hyphens also suggest that the opening is a long, drawn-out process, reminiscent of the slowness with which flowers blossom, peculiarly when contrasted with the post-obit line which contains no spaces between words and punctuation marks.
If nosotros look closely at the occurrences of graphological deviation in the verse form, we can see that it frequently works to foreground the dynamic verbs - those verbs which imply action of some sort. Line 10 ('-await-') is an instance of this. The line consists of a single verb in the imperative mood, foregrounded past a hyphen either side of it. The initial verb of line 14 is also foregrounded due to the deviant punctuation (a comma is used to begin the line). And in line eleven ('selves,stir:writhe') the verbs are foregrounded through being connected by a colon and by the lack of spaces betwixt words.
Other actions are foregrounded in dissimilar ways. In line 15 nosotros get repetition of the verb, and in lines 16, 17 and xviii the verbs occur in an unpunctuated list, with the list in brackets running on to a new line. And line 12 is foregrounded at a number of different levels; graphology (which we have already mentioned), grammer (through an inversion of the expected subject field-verb-object give-and-take order, which has the upshot of placing the emphasis of the clause on the action) and semantics - by having an inanimate abstract substantive ('dreams') functioning as the discipline of a dynamic verb. All these deviations focus our attending on the deportment in '(listen)' and contribute to the sense we accept of the poem being very dynamic. You lot tin run across, then, that our stylistic analysis is and so far upholding our initial interpretation of the verse form.
In addition to the graphological deviation in the poem, there is also some caste of graphological parallelism in the organisation of the poem into stanzas. There are several possible means of describing the graphological organization of the poem. It may be seen as five 6-line stanzas (the beginning line of each stanza being separated from the remaining 5 by a line space), with a stand-lonely line at the end of the verse form. Alternatively, we might describe it as being fabricated up of 5 five-line stanzas, all interspersed with a unmarried line. All the same you prefer to see it, what this seems to propose is that there is some order to the poem. It is not the chaotic graphological jumble that it start appears. It is difficult, though, to know what to make of the parallel structure of the poem, and if we were to endeavour and chronicle it to our initial impression of the poem it would exist a pretty tenuous estimation. Yet, one researcher who has studied a number of Cummings poems suggests that graphological parallelism is a significant stylistic feature in his poetry. Dixit (1977) studied a corpus of E. E. Cummings poems in particular and ended that, far from being arbitrary examples of deviation, the poems are, in fact, systematically deviant. She explains that:
When the poet chooses to talk about spring, his poem displays a regular cyclic structure like that of the seasons themselves.
(Dixit 1977: 87-88)
Obviously, it is no accident that Cummings structured the poem as he did, and the above is one possible explanation as to why.
Another instance of parallelism in the poem occurs at the phonological level, where nosotros detect the repetition of item sounds. Although '(listen)' does not have a rhyme scheme of any regularity (in fact, all that saves information technology from beingness defined equally complimentary verse is the regularity of its graphological organisation on the page), Cummings does brand employ of internal rhyme at item points within the poem. There is no strict pattern to its occurrence, yet there is some degree of phonological parallelism in each stanza except the last ii.3 Often we find a repetition of vowel sounds in words in shut proximity to each other, as we tin can see in the examples beneath (vowel sounds are in assuming):
| how crazily houses | [three] |
What nosotros can note from this is that the absenteeism of phonological parallelism in the last stanza once again foregrounds this part of the poem. The last stanza, then, is heavy with deviation, which suggests it is important in interpretative terms.
3.3 Congruence of Foregrounding in the Final Stanza
As we have seen then far, there is a strong element of foregrounding in the final stanza of '(heed)'. This is what Leech (1969) describes as 'congruence' of foregrounding, which is where we become lots of dissimilar types of foregrounding occurring at one time. This is apparently very important for our estimation of the verse form just before coming to any overall determination most meaning, permit'due south consider again exactly what elements are foregrounded here.
First there is the internal difference we noticed with the initial capitalisation of each word in the final line. Secondly, unlike in the other stanzas, there is a lack of whatsoever sort of phonological parallelism, and (disregarding the obvious lack of punctuation) the grammatical ordering of the stanza follows conventional rules of syntax. What is interesting about these foregrounded elements is that they are all the result of internal deviation, and are all foregrounded because they conform to our normal expectations of written language! In addition to the numerous deviant features of the verse form in the other stanzas, what we have in the final stanza is a kind of 'reverse' difference. The most strongly foregrounded features of '(listen)' are those which we would normally define as 'normal'.
The effect of all this is to go far unusually easy for us to understand the last stanza. At that place is no difficult interpretative work to do (in comparison to the remainder of the poem) and so the final message of the poem is made extremely clear; zilch and nobody can stop the progress of Jump and the poet's love - the implication being, maybe, that we should not struggle against these forces, but simply resign ourselves to accepting and condign participants in them.
four. Conclusion
Now we take analysed the verse form stylistically we are in a position to write some sort of conclusion to our written report. Here, you can reflect on whether or not your initial interpretation was borne out, and on those features of the text which you were possibly non able to account for.
My analysis of '(listen)' shows how we can use stylistics to uphold an interpretation of a verse form, and how it can also highlight elements of a poem that we might otherwise miss. Information technology too enables united states of america to speculate with more certainty on precisely why E. E. Cummings chooses to use such seemingly odd stylistic techniques in '(listen)'. For instance, nosotros saw that deviant punctuation is linked to the foregrounding of dynamic verbs, explaining why we perceive and then much 'movement' in the poem.
Analysing the poem stylistically too highlights how the most internally deviant features of the poem are those which we would usually consider to be 'normal', non-deviant language in both everyday advice and within poetry, and suggests a reason as to why this might be. Stylistics, then, is helpful in explaining parts of a text which we might not otherwise understand.
There are item features of the poem, though, which I take non been able to business relationship for. For case, I can't explain the comma between 'selves' and 'stir' in line 11, and I'thou not sure about the relevance of the colon just earlier 'every' in line 23. A stylistic analysis which could account for these factors would obviously supplant the ane I accept given.
In general though, I have shown how the linguistic features of a poem are directly related to pregnant, and in doing so I have upheld my initial estimation of '(mind)'. Of form, mine is not the only interpretation which could be given to the poem. However, past using a systematic analytical technique similar stylistics we tin can ensure that our interpretation is as explicit and grounded in fact equally it can be. It is also highly likely that any other stylistic analysis of the verse form would include at to the lowest degree some of my conclusions. I hope, then, that I accept shown you how to explain why a text makes you experience a particular way, and that I have gone some mode towards convincing yous that stylistics is a useful tool for anybody interpreting literary texts.
Notes
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Although many people believe that E[dward] E[stlin] Cummings had the lower case spelling of his proper noun legalized, the Eastward. E. Cummings Social club has recently been working to correct this thought which is at present generally believed to be false. More than information concerning this issue can be constitute at the following website: http://www.gvsu.edu/english/cummings/caps.htm. Notation though that many of Cummings' books are printed with the lower-instance spelling of his name on the embrace, which presumably he considered acceptable. To avoid confusion, throughout this article I use the conventional, upper-case spelling of Cummings' proper name.
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Annotation that we cannot land conclusively that the speaker is male since there is no textual bear witness for this. However, our schematic assumptions make it likely that nosotros volition imagine the speaker to be a human being, since 'darling' is perchance more probable to be used past a male to a female (of course, this is just an assumption; note that nosotros could test this hypothesis by concordancing the word 'darling' in a corpus of spoken English). There is too a trend for readers to assume that the persona in a poem and the poet are one and the same. Considering we know that the author of the poem is male person, it is likely that we will suppose the persona to be male person too.
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The absence of phonological parallelism in the penultimate stanza is perhaps explained by the fact that at this phase in the poem the language is becoming more 'normal' every bit we go far at the final stanza. The penultimate stanza of the poem is still stylistically odd, though, considering of the deviant punctuation in line 24 and the use of parentheses in line 25.
References
Blackmur, R. P. (1954) Linguistic communication equally Gesture: Essays in Poesy. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.
Cummings, E. Due east. (1964) 73 Poems. London: Faber and Faber.
Dixit, R. (1977) 'Patterns of Deviation in Selected Poems of E. Eastward. Cummings.' Unpublished Thousand.A. dissertation. Lancaster University.
Leech, G. N. (1969) A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry. London: Longman.
Short, M. (2000) 'Graphological Deviation, Style Variation and Signal of View in Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh.' Journal of Literary Studies/Tydskrif vir Literatuur Wetenskap 15 (3/4): 305 - 323.
Van Peer, W. (1980) 'The Stylistic Theory of Foregrounding: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation.' Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. Lancaster University.
Van Peer, W. (1986) Stylistics and Psychology: Investigations of Foregrounding. Croom Helm.
Source: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/fass/projects/stylistics/sa1/example.htm
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