English Stylistics
Aug 8, 2012
Poetic Speech
Poetic Speech
1. Comment on the peculiarities of the words and forms marked
My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man: So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die.'QN. Wordsworth)
2. Comment on the marked words; find their more up-to-date
synonyms (from J. Byron's poem "Child Harold", Canto the
first)
Whilome in Albion's isle there dwelt a youth, Who ne in virtue's ways did take delight; But spent his days in riot most uncouth, And vex'd with mirth the drowsy ear of Night. Ah, me! In sooth he was a shameless wight, Sore given to revel and ungodly glee; Few earthly things found favour in his sight Save concubines and carnal companie, And flaunting wassailers of high and low degree.
Childe Harold was he hight: — but whence his name
And lineage long, it suits me not to say;
Suffice it, that perchance they were of fame,
And had been glorious in another day...
Adieu, adieu/ My native shore
Fades o'er the waters blue;
The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar,
And shrieks the wild sea—mew.
Yon sun that sets upon the sea
We follow in his flight;
Farewell awhile to him and thee,
My native Land — Good night!
3. Find dialectal and archaic elements in R. Burns' poem:
Should auld acquaintance be forgot.
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days о' lang syne ?
For auld lang syne, my dears,
For auld lang syne.
We 'II tak a cup о 'kindness yet,
For auld lang syne...
And here's a hand, my trusty fiere,
And gie 's a hand о' thine;
And we 'II tak a right guid willie-waught
For auld lang syne.
Miscellany: Point Out the Stylistic Devices Used
Miscellany: Point Out the Stylistic Devices Used
1) "You have heard of Jefferson Brick I see, Sir, " — quoth the
Co/one/ with a smile. "England has heard of Jefferson Brick.
Europe has heard of Jefferson Brick ". (Dickens) 2) but who would scorn the month of June,
Because December, with his breath so hoary,
Must come? (Byron)
3) He ordered a bottle of the worst possible port wine, at the highest possible price. (Dickens)
4) Stoney smiled the sweet smile of an alligator. (Steinbeck)
5) And yet will you tell me that I oughtn 't to go into society? I, who shower money upon it in this way ? I, who might be almost said to —to — to harness myself to a watering cart full of money, and go about, saturating society, every day of my life? (Dickens)
6) He already had a car — a large car — an expensive car. In that car and no other he proposed to continue his journey back to town. (Christie)
7) Mother Nature always blushes before disrobing. (Y. Esar)
8) It's only an adopted child. One I have told her of. One I'm going to give the name to. (Dickens)
9) Richard said that he would work his fingers to the bone for Ada, and Ada said that she would work her fingers to the bone for Richard. (Dickens)
10) The mechanics were underpaid, and underfed, and overworked. (J. Aldridge)
11) Men 'stalk was better than women's. Never food, never babies, never sickness, but people, what happened, the reason. Not the state of the house, but the state of the Army... Not what spoilt the washing, but who spilled the beans. (D. du Maurier)
12) Swan had taught him much. The great kindly Swede had taken him under his wing. (E. Ferber)
Structural Stylistic Devices
Structural Stylistic Devices
1. State the type of inversion:
What the action of the play would have been like if Laertes had not had the occasion to revenge the death of his father, we cannot tell. (Literary criticism)
Had this happened before supper, George would have expressed wishes and desires concerning Harris's fate in this world and the next that would have made a thoughtful man shudder. (Jerome)
Calm and quiet below me in the sun and shade lay the old house. (Dickens)
2. What structural device is used below?
A poor boy... No father, no mother, no any one. (Dickens)
3. Comment on the kind of repetition used:
One may see by their footprints that they have not walked arm in arm; that they have not walked in a straight track, and that they have walked in a moody humour. (Dickens)
/ looked at the gun, and the gun looked at me. (R. Chandler)
4. Point out the devices of climax and anticlimax:
Of course it's important. Incredibly, urgently, desperately important. (D. Cusack)
// was a mistake ...a blunder... lunacy ... (W. Deeping)
He was numbed. He wanted to weep, to vomit, to die, to sink away. (A. Bennet)
They were absolutely quiet; eating no apples, cutting no names, inflicting no pinches, and making no grimaces, for full two minutes afterwards. (Dickens)
5. Explain the meaning of the periphrasis
She was still fat; the destroyer of her figure sat at the head of the table. (A. Bennet)
The hospital was crowded with the surgically interesting products of the fighting in Africa. (I. Shaw)
6. What device is created by the use of the marked words?
Don't use big words. They mean so little. (Wilde)
7. What device is represented by the marked part of the sentence
and what is the implication here?
"But, John, you know I 'm not going to a doctor. I 've told you. " "You are going — or else... "(P. Qucntin)
8. What device is used in the marked parts?
His nervousness about it irritated him: she had no business to make him feel like that. (Galsworthy)
Angela looked at him with swimming eyes. He was really different from anything she had ever known, young, artistic, imaginative, ambitious... What a wonderful thing! (Dickens)
9. What ways of connection are used in the extracts below?
And they wore their best and more colourful clothes. Red shirts and green shirts and yellow shirts and pink shirts. (P. Abrahams)
The pulsating motion at Malay Camp at night was everywhere. People sang. People cried. People fought. People loved. People hated. (P. Abrahams)
10. Name the device used below
"The day on which I had to take the happiest and best step of my life — the day on which I shall be a man more exulting and more enviable than any other man in the world — the day on which I give Bleak House its little mistress — shall be next month, then ", said my guardian. (Dickens)
VI. Comment on the Phonetic Devices Used Below
'Sh-sh', shesaid. 'But I'm whispering!' This continual shushing annoyed him. (A. Huxley)
The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
And murmuring of innumerable bees. (Tennison)
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