Masaryk university Faculty of Education Departmentof EnglishLanguageandLiterature Poetic licence and its interpretation DIPLOMA THESIS Brno 2008 Written by: Jitka Kročilová Supervisor: Mgr. Olga Dontcheva-Navrátilová, Ph.D. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Mgr. Olga Dontcheva-Navrátilová, Ph.D. for her inspiring remarksandsuggestionstomydiplomathesisandforherkindsupport. 2 Declaration: Iherebydeclare that thisdiplomathesisis completelymyownworkandthatIused onlythesourceslistedinthe bibliography. ………………………………………………… 10.12.2008 3 Contents: 1.Introduction...................................................................................................................6 2.IntroductiontotheTheoreticalPart ..............................................................................8 3.PoeticLicence .............................................................................................................10 3.1DefiningPoeticLicence ........................................................................................10 3.2.KindsofPoeticLicence .......................................................................................10 3.3.LevelsofBreakingtheRules ...............................................................................11 3.4.Deviation ..............................................................................................................12 3.4.1.DefiningDeviation .....................................................................................12 3.4.2.TypesofDeviation ......................................................................................13 3.4.2.1.PhonologicalandGraphologicalDeviation...................................13 3.4.2.2.LexicalandMorphological Deviation ...........................................17 3.4.2.3.SyntacticalDeviation .....................................................................19 3.4.2.4.SemanticDeviation........................................................................20 3.4.2.5.DialecticalDeviation .....................................................................22 3.4.2.6.DeviationofRegister .....................................................................23 3.4.2.7.DeviationofHistoricalPeriod .......................................................23 3.5.Parallelism .........................................................................................................24 4.ConclusiontotheTheoreticalPart ..............................................................................25 5.E.A.Poe .....................................................................................................................25 5.1.HisLife ..............................................................................................................26 5.2.TheRomanticPeriod.........................................................................................29 5.3. The Raven and Other Poems .............................................................................30 6.IntroductiontothePracticalPart ................................................................................31 7.Analysis ......................................................................................................................31 7.1.TitlesofthePoems ............................................................................................31 7.2.ThemesofthePoems .........................................................................................33 7.3.SettingsofthePoems .........................................................................................36 7.4.Narrator ..............................................................................................................38 7.5.Mood..................................................................................................................39 8.PoeticLicence .............................................................................................................41 8.1.Metre ..................................................................................................................41 8.2.Rhyme ................................................................................................................45 4 8.3.Alliteration,Assonance,Chiming......................................................................47 8.4.Elisions(Apocope,Aphesis,Syncope) ............................................................47 8.5.SectionsofPoemsandGraphological Means ....................................................48 8.6.Archaisms ..........................................................................................................49 8.7.BorrowingsfromOtherLanguages ...................................................................51 8.8.SyntacticRearrangements ..................................................................................51 8.9.RepeatedConstructionsandWords ...................................................................52 8.10.FigurativeLanguage ........................................................................................55 8.11.Register ............................................................................................................58 8.12. The Haunted Palace -Analysis .......................................................................58 9.ConclusiontothePracticalPart ..................................................................................61 10.Conclusion................................................................................................................62 11.Resumé ......................................................................................................................64 12.Bibliography.............................................................................................................65 13.Appendix1: The Raven and Other Poems (textofthe poems) Appendix2:Glossaryof Names 5 1. Introduction Whenreadingpoetry,many people have difficulties tounderstandwhat actually poets want tosay.As a result,theymake their owninterpretations of poems that are less based on proper analysis but more on their internal feelings, which can lead to manyinterpretations that differ from one another andwhichhave not muchincommon withthe original intentionof the poet.The number of the interpretations wouldnot be sucha bigproblem if theyare adequate,I meanreallybasedonwhat the poet wrote. Nevertheless,sometimes it is quite hardtounderstand,especiallyinthe case of modern poetry, what a poem communicates, and if a poem does not evoke any of a reader's personal experience or feelings,he or she wouldbe hardlyever interestedinit.The fact that poetry is quite demanding on the reader, because of all hidden meanings and missinginformation,andrequires,inthe majority of cases,readingmore thanonce and thinking about it,couldbe probably the reason for the declininginterest inreading of poetryintoday'shurriedera. Readingpoetry,as well as readingother literarygenres,candevelop the fantasy of readers andalsothe manner of how theyreflect.Poets mostlygive to the readers a new opportunityto think about things whichtheynormallydonot think about.That is whyinthis diploma thesis I wouldlike todeal withpoetryandpossible ways how to interpret it.As a future teacher, I am convincedthat better understandingof poetryand also literature in general can develop students' creative and critical thinking and can helpthem,intheirownlife,tosearchandfindother pointsofviewintheirownlife. The language of poetry (and not only poetical languages) is studied by the linguistic discipline called stylistic. It can help us to understand poetry more and to analyze it in greater detail. This discipline deals with a linguistic description and its relationtomeaning(Short,1996: 5) Ananalysis of all linguistic levels,i.e.grammar, sounds,words,textual structure can help readers not only toappreciate a poet's style of writing but also to understand how the poet uses stylistics means to express the meaningof a poem; thus it cansupport the interpretations of the poem byreasonable argumentsandmakethem morecomplexand.Howsuccessfulourinterpretationwill be depends largelyonour knowledge of the language we analyze,i.e.its grammar rules andlexis.Poetryitself is veryspecific as we have toknow grammar rules andlexis in order to understand what is odd in the poem, i.e. what is deviant. However, poetry requires not onlygood knowledge of language inwhich the poem is writtenbut also 6 other specific features that,inthe majorityof cases,are associatedwith poetry.Thus the maintaskof this diploma thesiswill be to reveal variouskinds of odditythat we can seeinpoetryanditsspecificfeatures,andtoshedlightontheir possibleinterpretations. Indeed, before I start my analysis, I have to clarify some terms used when analyzinga poem from a stylistics point of view.I will focus onthis inthe first part of the theoretical body of this work where terms such as poetic licence, deviation, foregroundingandparallelism will be explained.Moreover,I will explainwhenthey areusedbypoetsandtheirmaintypes. In the secondpart of the theoretical body, I will focus on the book of poetry chosentobe analyzedinthe practical bodyof this workandits author.For this analysis was chosenthe bookof poetrywrittenbyanAmericanpoet E.A.Poe The Raven and Other Poems. I will introduce brieflyhis life andinwhat periodof his life he wrote this famous book.Particular emphasis will be alsodevotedtothe relationbetweenhis life andhisworkandstyleofwriting. Last but not least,I will trytoidentifypoetic effects and oddities usedin Poe's poetry,give