stylistic analysis of emily dickinson

STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

I died for beauty but was scarceBy

Emily Dickinson

STYLISTIC ANALYSIS

Submitted to Mazhar Hayat Submitted by Anum shahzadie M.PHIL APPLIED LINGUISTICS

I died for beauty but was scarce

I died for beauty but was scarceAdjusted in the tomb,When one who died for truth was lainIn an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?'For beauty,' I replied.'And I for truth,--the two are one;We brethren are,' he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,We talked between the rooms,Until the moss had reached our lips,And covered up our names.

About poem

• The poetry of Emily Dickinson is radically original and innovative. She was a poet of immense depth and stylistic complexity. Her works are so unique that it is difficult to place them in a single tradition. Dickinson developed her arguments through startling metaphors, metrical variations, and angular, imprecise rhymes. Visual aspects of her poetry are very peculiar: unusual capitalization of nouns, unconventional punctuation, and omission of titles helped Dickinson to create extraordinary poems that amazed readers. Some people praised her imagistic qualities and the supreme mastery of words; others considered Dickinson's poetic innovations as a result of ineptitude, but nobody remained indifferent.

About poem

• The are two people in there grave talking about how they died. One died for truth, but the other, the narrator, died for her beauty of which she did not really have "But was scarce".

•"We brethren are" is beauty and truth. There is beauty in truth and also truth in beauty. They possibly both fail because they canceled each other out. Or, they fail because when you die, the truth goes with you and so does your beauty.

Stylistic Analysis

• Phonological level • Grammatical level • Semantic level • Pragmatic level • Graphological level • Discourse level • Lexical level

Phonological level

• Two types

Segmental feature

•onomatopoeia•Sound symbolism•Assimilation•Elision•Repetition of sounds( alliteration / assonance)

Supra- segmental

feature

• Stress• Rhythm• intonation

Segmental feature

• Onomatopoeia => no• Sound symbolism => no• Assimilation => Adjoining• Elision => no• Alliteration => When one who died for truth

was lain • Assonance =>

Supra- segmental feature

• Stress => • Rhyme => first stanza ABCX(B)• second stanza AABA• third stanza ABCA• Intonation => no

'For beauty,' I replied.

Graphological level

• About writing system of language like mark etc• As u have seen in this poem• There is deviation of graphological level in this

poem

Lexical level

• Slang , Archaism , Neologism , jargons => No• Word Inclination => writer used formal

vocabulary And so, as kinsmen met a night,

Lexical level

• Lexical idiom=>no

• Different Nous => tomb , room , moss

• Abstract Noun => beauty , truth

• Static verb =. Replied ,said , failed

lexical level

• Word types => yes

• Puns words

No

• Nonce words

No

Lexical level

• Puns words => In this poem there is one word ‘failed’1) Their ‘failure’ is life ultimate defeat death.2) Alternatively failure represent the futility of all

human endeavor for good failure 3) It is also personal stumbling , an imperfection

or shortcoming.4) Both seem to accept that their death are

failure

Grammatical level

• There are two things

Here is evaluative because comparing two things.

descriptive

evaluative

Discourse level

• Natural or responsible connection in context of text

Semantic level• Transitional devices => no• Grammatical features • i) Transitional words => no• ii) Grammatical devices => no

• iii)Lexical reiteration => no• Iv) co.reference

substitution

ellipsis

Pragmatic level

Pragmatic level

deixis

presupposition

Speech act

Cooperation / implicature

Deixis Personal d I died for beauty but was scarce Adjusted in the tomb, When one who died for truth was lain In an adjoining room. He questioned softly why I failed? "For beauty," I replied. "And I for truth, the two are one; We brethren are," he said. And so, as kinsmen met a night, We talked between the rooms, Until the moss had reached our lips, And covered up our names.

Presupposition

• There is no presupposition.

Implicature

No •Generalize conversation•No specific context

yes •Scalar conversation•Conveying information

yes •Particularize conversation•With specific context

Cooperative principle

• Presence of maxim maxim of quality , quantity , relation and

manner

•

• The End :)