Subject: Introduction to Literature (Poetry)

Topic: Poetic Diction

Outline:
1) Introduction (The meaning of words)
2) Denotation
3) Connotation
4) Allusion
5) Repetition

* The meaning of words:

Words are building blocks of poetry. For understanding
the language of poetry our knowledge of the meaning of
individual words is very important.
In poetry several elements (Connotation, Denotation
and Allusion) depends on context. Meaning of individual
words are more likely be determined by the context and
relationship of different words in the sentence.
Therefore, no words can be changed in poetry because if
we will do so we will harm the whole.
* Denotation
Denotation is one of the principal method of describing
the meanings of words. Denotation refers to the literal
meaning of a word, the dictionary definition.
For Example:
If we look up the word ‘snake’ in a dictionary, we will
discover that one of its denotative meaning is ‘ any of
numerous scaly, legless, sometimes venomous reptiles
having a long tapering body found in tropical regions’
Certain points which should be kept in mind while
understanding the meaning are.
i. New words are coming and old words are changing
their meanings.
For Example:
* Bo gum which Lewis Carroll used as ‘dangerous
variety’ now is the name species of tree found in the
south California.
* ‘The Snake’ used for elusive creature now is the name
of trade of small sailboat.
ii. Secondly same word can mean different things to
different people or different in different contexts.
For Example:
‘He is a bid red’
This sentence may mean that he is embarrassed to one
person or he is sunburned to another.
So, we can say that every word has many definitions
which depend on the context.
To understand the poetry it is the first task to
understand thoroughly each word in it. Often, the best
clues to the meaning of unfamiliar word are found
within the poem itself.
For Example:
In Robert- frost sonnet “ Design” if someone wishes to
know the meaning of “ heal-all” one has to understand
its meaning in the poem.
I found a dimpled spider, fat and white
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
…………………………………………………….
What had that flower to do with being white
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?

If we look at dictionary it tells that a heal-all is name of

number of plants that has medicinal value. Although it is
accurate but it cannot help unless we look the poem and
try to understand which plant Robert Frost meant and
what emotions he hoped to evoke to the reader. As
through line number 9-10 we get to know that heal-all is
a blue flower of substantial height and large size to
support a fat spider.
Connotation:
Connotation, on the other hand refers to the association
that are connected to a certain word or the emotional
suggestions related to that word. The connotative
meanings of a word exist together with the denotative
meanings thus, The connotations for the word (snake)
could include evil or danger.
* If we compare both denotation and connotation with
the example of tree then denotations are visible like
tree’s branches and leaves and connotation are the roots
which go deeply into the subsoil of our experience
creating invisible ties between contexts and
associations.
* Many words have multiple and conflicting
connotations.
Example:
In the sonnet by Frost, the spider, the moth and
the flower are all white. We mostly associate the
adjective (white) with purity and cleanliness. In other
contexts, however, this color can also signifying illness,
blight or death. And in this sonnet Frost is drawing on
both sets of connotation in his poem.
It should be noted that like denotations, connotations
may also change over time, indeed even the
connotations of an idea may also change over time.
Allusion:
A literary allusion is a brief reference or a suggestion to
a historical or well known person, place or thing.
Importance:
Allusions are effective not because of the meaning of the
words themselves but because of the association that
allusive words carry for intelligent readers.
Poet use allusion to reinforce an argument by
illustration to compress complex ideas into brief phrase.
Poet suggest thoughts they may not wish to state
directly.
“Names” as the most common forms of allusions and the
easiest to identify.
Example:
Lets look at the stanza from lord Byron’s Don
Juan.
When amatory poets sing their loves
……………………….
As Ovid’s verse may give to understand
Even Petrarch’s self, If judged with die severity
Is the platonic pimp of all posterity

i) In this stanza Byron is alluding to the rumor that Ovid

was banished from Rome because his verse had tempted
the daughter of emperor Caesar Augustus to turn from
the path of virtue and to give the reader a knowledge
that he is seductive of all love poets.
ii) The reference to Petrarch in line seven assumes that
the reader will know that this fourteenth-century Italian
poet (Who wrote 227 sonnets about his unrequired love
for Laura living and another 90 about his love for Laura
dead) inspired the amorous Elizabethan sonnet cycles
by his own example.
iii) Another allusion is platonic love which is more
commonly used for spiritual love.

Repetition:
Repetition means when a set or group of lines that
repeats at regular intervals in different stanzas.
The repetitions of a word or phrase change the
emphasis and make certain ideas prominent what
otherwise might be overlooked.
Example:
Stopping by woods on a snowy evening.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have promises to keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep
In this stanza poet may mean the whole burden of life’s
responsibilities by the phrase “promises to keep” and
sleep the final word of refrain means for death which is
an eternal sleep.
The last line shows repetition the poet intends to repeat
the line to give us additional meaning and to change our
interpretation of the entire poem.
* Refrain:
In stanza poetry and ballads repetition is
often introduced in the form of a refrain.
* The refrain generally occurs at the close of stanza
where it helps to establish meter, influence mood or add
emphasis.
* A refrain may be identical in each stanza or it may vary
Example:
An example of the effective use of a refrain is found
in Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Recessional’
In three stanza’s of this poem has an identical two-line
refrain.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget-lest we forget!
The meaning of this refrain depends on literary
allusions, meanings of words and repetition itself.
Kipling’s two-line refrain combines both a prayer and a
warning: a prayer for God’s continuing presence in the
hearts of Englishmen and implicit warning about the
consequences of neglecting him and the repetition of
phrase ‘lest we forget’ makes this warning all the more
solemn and overall this repetition add the solemnity
and piety to the mood of poem.