Volume:7 Issue:2 (Dec.
2014) ISSN 0972-0901
“ Stylistic Analysis of the poem
`Daffodils’ : A lingua – cognitive approach”
Dr. J.B. Patil
Head, Dept. of English
Kamala College
Kolhapur Maharashtra 416008
Abstract :
Various approaches have been used to discover the sublime mysteries of
literary texts. Cognitive stylistics is one of the fruitful and useful branches which
primarily focuses on the reading process. According to it, `reading is an active
process and that readers play dynamic and active role in the construction of the
meaning of the literary texts.’ Meaning is located in the formal structure of the poem
so also it is generated by the readers by utilizing aspects of their pre-existing
background knowledge (schema) as they read. This means ``Texts Project
meaning and Readers construct it’’. This being an innovative and most
productive approach with explanatory power, the researcher wants to apply it to
interpret the most celebrated poem `Daffodils’ written by William Wordsworth and
see what wonders it works at.
``One of the intensions to select the poem is that it is prescribed in most of
the universities in India and abroad. It is the sincere conviction that the
methodology and approach used to analyze this poem, can be utilized while
teaching poetry in Indian classrooms. Hence the article bears pedagogical
implications.
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I) Theoretical Background :
Cognitive stylistics is a recent branch in stylistics which takes into account
the cognitive processes by which readers respond to particular aspects of texts. It
also points out how the readers utilize their real life schematic knowledge in the
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interpretation and enjoyment of the literary texts. In this way it is true that `texts
project meaning and readers construct it’. ``Texts contain triggers which activate
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Volume:7 Issue:2 (Dec.2014) ISSN 0972-0901
aspects of readers’ background knowledge. This then allows readers to construct
mental representation of the world of the text’’ 1
Foregrounding is a cornerstone in stylistic analysis which is exhibited
through deviations and parallelism. Some research and empirical tests affirm the
fact that readers attach more interpretative significance to foregrounded elements
of the text while interpreting them. At this juncture the concept of figure and ground
plays its vital role. This concept bestows a new cognitive coloring to the concept of
foregrounding and it provides an opportunity to explain the reasons of why we as
readers are more attracted to deviant and parallel structure in the texts.
Gestalt psychologists such as Rubin formulated the notion of figure and
ground. According to Rubin we distinguish between figures and background
because of the particular organization of our visual field. He proposed a `face –vase
illusion model’ in which it is pointed out that a particularly bright object will stand
out against a dull background and therefore it becomes prominent and hence
`figural’. On such objects which `stand out’, from others, we concentrate our attention
because they have special properties of form, color, size…… Therefore `figures’ are
more striking and are in the front position. On the contrary `ground’ is dull, formless
and unstructured and hence less prominent. `Figures’ are more memorable than
`grounds’. Readers attach special importance to them. Many research scholars hold
the same view.
Ungerer and Schmid2 say, ``figures are likely to be associated with meaning,
feeling and aesthetic values’’.
The concept of `figure and ground’ is used in Visual Arts and the same can
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be extended to literary texts for their interpretation and analysis. In literature
particularly novel, the characters are injected with the sense of movement by the
Cyber Literature: The International Online Journal http://www.englishcyberliterature.net
Volume:7 Issue:2 (Dec.2014) ISSN 0972-0901
novelists. They move across the ground and evolve themselves. They are called
textual figures. Explanation of such literary phenomenon can be done with the
help of the concept named Image Schema. In Poetry along with characters certain
other objects constitute `figures’ being able to move either spatially or temporally
across the ground.
According to Stockwell3 such movements can be prototypically represented
by :
a) the verb phrase b) verbs of motions c) locative expression of space and time
realized through prepositional phrases. Image schema, is a result of repeated
experience of certain concepts. It can be used as a tool to understand the
MOVEMENT in literary texts.
Jeffries and McIntyre4 say, `with regard to movement one of the image
schemas we have is of the locative expression OVER/UNDER. This arises out of
our repeated encounters with objects moving over other aspects. Stockwell5 lists
some of these schemas as Journey, Conduit Up/Down, Front/Back and Into/Out.
In this schema ``FIGURE’’ is referred to as a Trajectory and the `Ground’
that it is moving over is called Landmark and a trajectory moves over a landmark,
it follows a `path’.
`Now let us consider how the concept of figure and ground is useful in
explaining the mechanism which a reader utilizes to understand the sense of a
literary text. For this purpose I have selected Wordsworth’s most celebrated and
widely read and beloved poem `Daffodils’.
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Cyber Literature: The International Online Journal http://www.englishcyberliterature.net
Volume:7 Issue:2 (Dec.2014) ISSN 0972-0901
(II) Text of the poem:
Daffodils
William Wordsworth.
I wondered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
when all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils ;
Besides the lake, beneath the trees,
fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay
In such a Jocund Company:
I gazed – and – gazed – but little thought
what wealth they show to me had brought.
For oft, whe on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
and dances with daffodils.
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Cyber Literature: The International Online Journal http://www.englishcyberliterature.net
Volume:7 Issue:2 (Dec.2014) ISSN 0972-0901
(III) Stylistic Analysis with Lingua – cognitive approach :
In this poem the speaker describes his encounter with the charming spectacle
of daffodils, which brings about a profound change in his mode of perception.
As we read the poem we are likely to visualize the scene described in the
poem. We see it in a particular way. We might picture the golden daffodils; fluttering
ring and dancing in the breeze and tossing their heads in sprightly dance, as being
in the foreground of the scene. The Vps `fluttering’ and `dancing’ and the adjective
`golden’ in the 1st stanza and `Tossing’ in the 2nd stanza are expressive of
movement and they project the `figure’ of daffodils as `dancers’ performing a
sprightly dance: A Jocund Company in which a poet / anybody could not but be gay!
we might also visualize the floating cloud, vales and hills, lake, trees, shining and
twinkling stars, the milky way, the margin of the bay, sparkling and dancing waves,
the poet and the couch. Why is it that we visualize the scene in this way? It is
because all these elements are related spatially or temporally to the centralized
`Figure’ encapsulated in the NP: daffodils, which is the title of the poem. In this
respect, the concept of `figure and image’ can throw light on cognitive process in
which we imagine the scene.
There are other `figures, and `grounds’ which are adeptly fixed by the poet
across the course of a whole text:
1. The figure of the speaker in the poem is represented by the pronoun `I’ which is
repeated in the poem for five times, and the important thing is that `the pronoun `I’
plays its role as a subject in the concerned sentences wherein it comes ‘. The verbs
`wandered’ `saw’ used for 2 times `gazed’ and `dances’ are related to him, and to 86
the activity being described in the poem.
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Volume:7 Issue:2 (Dec.2014) ISSN 0972-0901
(1) The verb saw is used twice: i.e. in the 3rd and 11th line. It is syntactic deviation
in line 11 : Ten thousand saw I.’ Here we visualize the figure of the speaker as an
`observer’.
(2) The verb `gazed’ in line No. 17 is repeated: ``I gazed – and – gazed.’’
This verb projects the `figure’ of the speaker as a watcher who looks steadily at
daffodils for a long time because he finds them `attractive’ and `surprising’ in an
`enchanting, ever alluring and sprightly show of dancing.
(3) The verb `dances’ in the last line projects the figure of the speaker as `dancer’.
This transformation of a speaker from `observer’ to `watcher’ and from
watcher to `dancer’ is remarkable outstanding and prominent so `figural’.
(2) The NP `a cloud’ attracts our attention. It constitutes a `trajector’ floating
on high over several landmarks – i.e. `vales’ and `hills’. The cloud is the trajector
following a path above the vales and hills. The way that we see is governed by the
`Over Image Schema’. The floating of a cloud (figure) is equated with the
speaker’s wandering. Both are `lonely’. The projection of the image schema of the
cloud in the speaker makes both of them `one and the same and hence `prominent’
and `figural’.
(3) Another `figure’ that attracts our `attention’ and `interest’ is the NP `the stars’
which constitutes a `trajector’ shining and twinkling over the milky way which
constitutes the landmark.
There is semantic parallelism between the stars and daffodils and we, as readers,
construct the mental picture of the stars and daffodils as :
1) Stars in continuous line - daffodils in never ending line
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2) On the milky way - along the margin of a bay
Cyber Literature: The International Online Journal http://www.englishcyberliterature.net
Volume:7 Issue:2 (Dec.2014) ISSN 0972-0901
The enumerator `Ten Thousand’ is foregrounded to tell the total number of daffodils.
In fact this is the example of `hyperbole’.
There is another striking figure projected in the NP `The Waves’ , which is
the grammatical subject of the first sentence of the 3rd stanza. The NP `The Waves’
leads us to construct the mental picture of the lake beside which golden daffodils
dance and flutter. This is another new element in the poem. This newness plays a
major part in making `the waves’ figural in the text. The dance of the waves is
equated with that of the daffodils, but the vp `out-did’ used with the figure `the
daffodils’ represented by the pronoun `they’ in line No. 13 at once makes the dance
of daffodils more prominent and spectacular, hence the daffodils – centrally
projected as figural’.
The NP `they’ in the last stanza (line No. 3) is foregrounded. It is the
grammatical subject of the second sentence of the last stanza. The NP constitutes
a trajector flashing upon the landmark – that inward eye i.e. imagination of the
speaker.
All these figures are woven in semantic parallelism. The speaker as `the
cloud’ at one level and daffodils as `stars’ and `waves’ at another level at once
occupy a place of special significance in the wonderland of the poem. The alchemy
of the poet with which he worked wonders in the poem is spectacular! While reading
we, the readers can feel the poem as if it is a `film camera’ , taking close-up shots
after shots. The poem itself projects as `a kaleidoscope’ of beauteous things. The
lilting rhythm and melody along with the description of figures in filmic terms makes
this poem `A thing of beauty which is a joy forever !’.
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The researcher is aware of the fact that `a good poem provokes for many
interpretations’ and therefore his article is open ended one.
Cyber Literature: The International Online Journal http://www.englishcyberliterature.net
Volume:7 Issue:2 (Dec.2014) ISSN 0972-0901
References :
1. Jeffries and McIntyre, (2010) Stylistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
2. Ungerer and Schmid (1996) An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics.
London : Longman.
3. Stockwell in Jefferies. Op. cit.
4. Jefferies. Op. cit
5. Stockwell. Op. cit.
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