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Shahid Ashraf

Dr. Zainab Younus

Advanced Stylistics

27 April, 2023

Exploring Stylistics Features and Textual Analysis of Two Poems

This paper presents a stylistic analysis of two poems of well-known poets of the English

literature, namely; E.E. Cummings and the Irish noble laureate Seamus Heaney. It is an

approach to Cummings’s poem “maggie and milly and molly and may” and Heaney’s “A Kite

for Aibhin” from the stylistics point of view. The paper also analyzes the poems using the tools

of linguistics with a view to make their meaning explicit. It is worth noting that stylistics as a

scientific discipline is really beneficial to those who are teaching and studying English language

and literature. No matter whether English is the native, second or foreign language. Not only

foreign students but also the speakers of the English language can benefit from stylistics. They

can get linguistic besides literary competence. Nowadays, stylistics with its tools and methods of

linguistics can help to a logical and scientific understanding of the literary texts based on

linguistic evidence.

Introduction

The rapid growth of linguistics into an independent discipline and its application to the study

of literature opened new horizons in the field of literary criticism in the twentieth century. “There

are a number of recent developments in and around linguistics which deserve to be better known
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to literary critics for they point to the original ways of reading and analysis and literary

criticism, as a discipline has always welcomed innovation”

The purpose of this research is to introduce the tools of stylistics and their practical application

in poetry analysis In fact, stylistics works as a linking bridge between two important fields i.e.

linguistics and literature.

Stylistics and Style

Stylistics takes a close look at the text and analyzes its significant language forms for the sake

of interpretation, it comes very close to practical criticism. Even in the reader response theory

criticism or reception theory stylistics has a role to play. Stylistics, in fact, has a great effect on

almost every kind of critical approach. According to various dictionaries, the term “stylistics”

means “the science of literary style” or the “art of forming good style in writing”.

By stylistics I mean the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation and I shall take

the view that what distinguishes stylistics from literary criticism on the one hand and linguistics

on the other is that it is essentially a means of linking the two. However, Stylistics involves both

literary criticism and linguistics, as its morphological make-up suggests: the style component

relating it to the former and the ‘istics’ component to the later.”

According to Wales (1989:435), the word style is quite difficult to define. The reason behind

this difficulty is related to the way how can readers understand it. This might affect the features

related to stylistics, which is part of linguistics.

Linguistics which represents the broader discipline and stylistics is a part of it, helps readers to

discover the hidden clues about the language. It can act as the screw that dismantles the pieces of

the whole text into smaller understandable parts. It can be a great help to interpret the meaning of
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a certain literary work. Carter and Stockwell pointed out linguistics can give readers a point of

view, a way of looking at a text that helps readers to develop a consistent analysis, and urges

them to ask questions about the language of the text that they come through.

Key terms used in Textual analysis

Foregrounding

Before starting the actual analysis of the selected poems, it is important to bring the attention

to one of the important terms used in stylistics, which is foregrounding. Whenever this term

comes, we immediately attach it with stylistics. It is the most important part of the stylistic

analysis in poetry. Foregrounding, giving unusual prominence to one element or property of a

text, relative to other less noticeable aspects. Literary works are special by virtue of the fact that

they foreground their own linguistic status, thus drawing attention to how they say something

rather than to what they say: poetry ‘deviates’ from everyday speech and from prose by using

metre, surprising metaphors, alliteration, and other devices by which its language draws attention

to itself.

Lexical Deviation

This deviation is created by the poets by using words in a special way that differs from its

ordinary usage i.e. giving words a deeper value to express meaning and to show an aesthetic

value in the poem.

Semantic Deviation

This is the deviation that shows how an ordinary simple word can have an astonishing

meaning. Sometimes the poet’s own life and culture can affect the meaning of the same word.
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Phonological Deviation, this deviation related to the sounds which are created on purpose to

create music with consideration to rhyme.

Morphological Deviation, this type of deviation is about how words can be formed.

Grammatical Deviation

In this kind of deviation, poets neglect the rules related to sentence structure. They deliberately

neglect the usage of the full stop within sentences. In addition, they use the tenses of the

sentences in a wrong way etc.

The Use of Dialect

The standard dialect cannot fulfil the needs of the poets to express what they do feel and for

this reason they borrow certain features from the dialect of their native language which can

suffice the purpose to express their own emotions through writing their poems by using “refined

dialects”.

The Use of Register

Register is represented in the use of special vocabulary, grammar, etc. These are used by

people in certain situations and events. Register is not used by all people, but only a limited

group of people. Sometimes writers use “register mixing” which means different registers.

Historical Deviation

In this kind of deviation, poets use archaic words that are no longer used in daily language.

They do so in order to enhance the aesthetical value of the poem. Poets in their poetry may

include words from Latin or Greek languages such as (thou, ere, hither… etc).

Graphological Deviation
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Graphological deviation is exemplified by the neglecting of the rules related to punctuation,

e.g. writing without using capital letters, or without using spaces or rhymes.

A Stylistic Analysis of “maggie and milly and molly and Deviatio

Before starting with the analysis of this poem, the researcher finds it necessary to give a brief

introduction about the writer and the poem. E. E. Cummings (1894-1962) was the representative

of American modern experimental poets. Khalil comments about Cumming’s style; “chewing the

conventional rhymes and syntactic structure of poems and even rejecting to transfer information

and emotion in the way of conventional printing. In other words, He has his own method of

writing poetry and has special peculiarities in handling language in his own way”.

Maggie and milly and molly and may

1- maggie and milly and molly and may

2-went down to the beach (to play one day)

3- and maggie discovered a shell that sang

4-so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles, and

5-milly befriended a stranded star

6-whose rays five languid fingers were;

7-and molly was chased by a horrible thing

8-which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

9-may came home with a smooth round stone

10-as small as a world and as large as alone.

11-for whatever we lose (like a you or a me)

12.it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

First of all, the rhyme scheme of this poem is AABCDDEFGGHH, so we can easily notice

that the lines (3-4) and (7-8) break the rhyming scheme of the poem. There is also a kind of

parallelism between the two lines (3-7), this is also right between (4-8), these lines end with

(troubles, and – bubbles. To analyze the poem stylistically, it is necessary to mention the

foregrounding techniques used by the poet.

1. A Stylistic Analysis at the Phonological Level:

This lyric has a nursery rhyming, song for little children. So there is ample use of alliteration.

It helps in creating rhythm and music suitable for a table for example:

i.maggie and milly and molly and may

ii.so sweetly

iii.stranded star

iv.five languid fingers

v.blowing bubbles

vi.a smooth round stone

At the phonological level, there are many examples of rhyme, end rhyme, and internal rhyme.

“may-day, stone-alone, me-sea”. There is a pattern in stressed and unstressed syllables

correspondingly referred to as the ‘ictus’ (/) and the ‘remiss’ (x). The basic foot in this poem is

iamb with some variations, e.g.:

/ x / x / x /

maggie and milly and molly and may

There is a repetition of the conjunction ‘and’ which gives rise to a typical rhythm found in

children’s song. The number of syllable line-wise is 1-2-9-3 The number of syllables in many

lines is similar so it helps to create rhyme. Thus, all these devices help create nursery rhyme

flavor which is thematically blended with the tone of the moral fable.

2- Analysis at the Morphological Level

The words used in this poem are those which figure in children’s language or domain. They

are related to the toys or for which children have attraction. So they evoke the world of children

and their interests. These can be treated as words of a set of their associated words or collocated

words. For example: “Beach – sea – standed – star – shell – sing – horrible thing – round stone –

bubbles – blowing- Sang-not remember troubles, befriended- chased.” All these are the words

from a set. They create or evoke an atmosphere at the sea-beach and how children help

themselves and meet their interests, the use of too many ‘ands’ in the first line of the poem

cannot go unnoticed. It distinguishes the four people at the same time also groups them.

3- Analysis at the Syntactic Level:

Note the grammatical deviation in line11 “Like a you or me” (misclassification- word of one

class for another) here the personal pronouns turn up as heads of noun phrases. See also the

deviant syntax in the use of ‘alone’ as an object of comparison. “As small as a world and as long

as alone”. Notice the deviation in the following line: “Whose rays five languid fingers were”

(dislocation). These two examples of fragmentation/ parenthesis placed in bracket, e.g. (to play
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one day); like a you or a me). The use of the indefinite article ‘a’ modifying pronouns ‘you’ and

‘me’ as in like a you or a me. It suggests anyone in the world in a novel manner.

In line no. 3 and 4 there is a case of syntactic elaboration e.g. and Maggie discovered “a shell

that sang so sweetly she couldn’t remember the troubles”.

There are many cases of parallel structures:

Maggie discovered a shell S.V.O

2- She couldn’t remember the troubles S.V.O

3- Milly befriended a stranded star S.V.O

4- We loose S.V.

5- We find S.V.

4.Analysis at the Graphological Level: Leve

Capitalization is an important element in Cummings’ poems. His style of writing poetry is

manifested by violating the regular rules of capitalization or punctuation in general. He often

writes proper names in small letters. Even his own name is written using small letters. Rather

than capitalizing the first word of every sentence, or every proper name, Cummings seems to

have an entirely different use for capitalization in a poem. In this poem, there are numerous

examples of the graphological deviation. Examples from the poem include; “maggie, milly,

molly and may” also starting the lines of the poem without capitalization.

Figurative Use of Language

1- “Its ourselves we find in the sea (of life)” and “whose rays five languid fingers were”.

These two lines are metaphors, which mean an implied comparison between two things of unlike

nature.

2-“as small as a world and as large as alone”

This line is a simile. Notice the use of the word “as” to compare the likeness of the size of the

world. A simile is a figure of speech by which one thing, action, or relation is likened or

explicitly compared, often with as or like, to something of a different kind or quality. By

mentioning an example of stylistic analysis, one can easily recognize the patterns of alliteration,

repetition, and examine these patterns, which contribute to meaning and our interpretation of the

poetic contents and effects. The next poem will enhance the stylistic interpretation by giving

another style and technique of another poet.

A Stylistic Analysis of Seamus Heaney’s “A Kite for Aibhín”

“A Kite for Aibhín” is one of the poems in Seamus Heaney’s new collection, which is Human

Chain, this collection is published in 2010. It is an example of the twenty-first-century poems. In

this poem collection, Heaney discussed the parent and child, husband and a wife, past, and

future; we can feel that all the themes in this collection are related to humans being. Human

Chain is Heaney’s twelfth collection of poems “A Kite for Aibhin” is a greeting to Aibhin echoes

the poem of the Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli’s “L’AQUILONE” in English “The Kite”.

Kite for Aibhín” After ‘L’Aquilone’ by Giovanni Pascoli (1855-1912)

1 .Air from another life and time and place,

2. Pale blue heavenly air is supporting

3. A white wing beating high against the breeze,

4. And yes, it is a kite! As when one afternoon

5.All of us there trooped out

6.Among the briar hedges and stripped thorn,

7. I take my stand again, halt opposite

8. Anahorish Hilli to scan the blue,

9. Back in that field to launch our long-tailed comet.

10. And now it hovers, tugs, veers, dives askewii,

11.Lifts itself, goes with the wind until

12.It rises to loud cheers from us below.

13. Rises, and my hand is like a spindle

14.Unspooling, the kite a thin-stemmed flower

15.Climbing and carrying, carrying farther, higher

16. The longing in the breast and planted feet

17.And gazing face and heart of the kite flier

18. Until string breaks and—separate, elate—

19. The kite takes off, itself alone, a windfall.

This poem is a celebration of the birth of Heaney’s grand-daughter,her name is Aibhíniii. The

poet wrote this poem in the honor of the family’s newborn member. Actually, this poem recalls
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“A Kite for Michael and Christopher” from Heaney’s 1984 collection Station Island. Let us now

take a close look at the poem; the language of the poem is rather simple. The total number of the

words in the poem is 143 words. This poem has rather various rhyming scheme, which is;

(a,b,c,d,e,d,f,g,f,h,I,h,j….etc). Also, this poem consists of 6 stanzas and the last line “The kite

takes off, itself alone, a windfall”. Each stanza consists of three lines, which is called a triplet.

Aesthetic use of language can be clarified as follows:

1-Assonance: the repetition of the vowel sound to create internal rhyming within the poetic line.

Life/ time; pale/air; white/high; beating/breeze

2-Alliteration: the repetition of the consonant sound, for example; the third line white- wing,

beating –breeze , also in the eleventh line; with –wind, and the fifteenth line; Climbing –

carrying.

3-Free repetition: which means the repetition of full words in the poem. For example; the word

“and” is repeated so many times in the whole poem about 10 times, also the word “kite”, and the

word “carrying” in line (15). If we want to know the reason for using free repletion the only

answer is that to create a musical effect and to emphasize certain point that the poet has in his

mind.

4- Simile: in line (13) “my hand is like a spindle”, we can easily recognize similes by the use of

the words “as or like”. After dismantling the language of the poem from the aesthetic point of

view, there will be an attempt to discover the right interpretation of the poem. The first two lines

are describing the physical atmosphere, including the air which the poet describes as “Air from

another life and time and place”, refers to something special or rare, and “heavenly” as he

mentions in the second line. The third line is a metaphoric line in which the kite is described as
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“A white wing beating high against the breeze”, the wing which is flying against the heavenly air

in the sky. After this description, he ascertains that it is a kite by using the word ‘yes’. He also

mentioned in the same line that the family gathered in one afternoon to watch this flying kite. All

this celebrating the birth of the newborn child, so the kite can represent the child, and all the

family members are gathered to attend this great event.

This peaceful description, he mentions “Among the briar hedges and stripped thorn”, the thorn

and briar’ to refer to the delivery process of the child or for the waiting process which is as we

can say in our daily life “on pins and needles”. In line (7) the poet continues to describe his

way of dealing with this event or situation. In line (8), he makes a reference to “Anahorich Hill”

one of the places from the poet’s early childhood, when he was a schoolboy, this place stick to

his memory. Actually, he recalls the memory of this green place, this place in which water

springs from the earth making everything alive and green. In line (10) and (11), the poet comes

back to describe the kite, he mentions that after recalling some memories. He said the all the

family members are watching the kite, and then he uses several vital verbs { hovers, tugs, veers,

dives } in this line to describe the movement of this flying object. Line (12) the family

encourages the kite as if it is a person, Heaney uses “rise” opposite to “below” referring to the

position of the kite and the family members. In line (13) the poet uses a simile; he makes

similarity between his hand and a spindle (spinning wheel), which rolls up the thread of the kite.

Line (14) and (15) an allegory of parenthood is created by the poet, he is describing how skillful

is the kite flyer is “Unspooling, the kite a thin-stemmed flower”. Actually, he encourages the kite

to soar “Climbing and carrying, carrying farther, higher” Line (16) and (17) refer to the infant’s

longing to the breast of the mother and looking at her face. Finally, line (18) and (19) refer to the

childbirth and to the separating process of the umbilical cord which connects the mother and the
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child. Readers can notice the long hyphen referring to this process, then the newborn child comes

down by itself as a gift by nature, the poet uses “windfall” the most appropriate climax to the

very beginning of the kite in the air.

Conclusions

Throughout the research, there has been an attempt to characterize the nature of the poems and

to indicate an approach to their understanding which allows access to the significance of these

two poems. The reason for choosing two poems of two different poets and not two poems of one

poet is to make clear that stylistic analysis can be more clarified by choosing different styles

because each artist has his own style distinguishing him from the others. Thus, stylistic analysis

would be more explicit. Stylistics can tell us how to know the constituent parts of a literary text

and enables us to document their operations, but in doing so it must be based on the terminology

and methodology of other disciplines which focus upon language in the real world. These

disciplines may include linguistics, sociolinguistics, semiotics, and other disciplines which

involve the context and pragmatic purpose of communication. The researcher comes to the

conclusion, that through stylistic tools of foregrounding and its types, one can reach to the right

Interpretation of the poem, even if there is no prior knowledge about the literary work. Not

forgetting that words are the keys to the door which leads directly to the meaning and

interpretation of any genre of literary works. In this way, from a humble researcher’s point of

view, stylistics gives us in one way the opportunity to enjoy the creativity of English literature,

especially English poetry. In another way, stylistics uses the scientific and the objective look of

linguistic analysis.

Works Cited
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Black, Elizabeth. Pragmatics Stylistics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.

Cummings, Michael Joseph.The Language of Literature: A Stylistic Introduction to the Study of

Literature. London: Pergamon Delhi, 1983.

A Kite for Aibhín Poetry Analysis » Connecting with Seamus Heaney. Retrieved April 12, 2013.