Name: Gilang Syahdath Pratama

Class : 33.4A.25

NIM : 33200150

The important point to notice, however, is that these “channels” are defined aesthetically not
linguistically. Each syntactic structure can be used to produce more than one type of aesthetic effect
and each aesthetic effect can be produced by a range of syntactic structures.

Perceptual Effects

(a) Iconic Syntax

In producing this effect, poets shape the formal and/or spatio-temporal struc ture of the
syntax so that, in some sense, it "resembles" the situation to which the syntax refers. This is
the syntactic correlate of sound symbolism on the phonetic level. For example, just as
authors can use a continuant sound to present flowing movement (iconically), they can also
juxtapose words to indicate spatial and tempor al juxtaposition, scramble words to indicate
situational confusion, invert words to in dicate thematic inversion, and so forth.
(b) Rhetorical Emphasis
Here, poets manipulate the syntax to increase the perceptual salience of words and constituents in
order to emphasize the conceptual content of these forms. In most cases, this involves manipulating
the syntax so that a normally unstressed con stituent receives a strong phrasal stress indicating an
unambiguous sentential “focus.”

(c) Nominal Syntax

In this “channel,” poets use the syntax exclusively in its nominal (as opposed to speech act) function
for imagistic effects. These nominal structures (which lack finite verbs) destroy the narrative,
assertive force of the statements in a poem and therefore lead readers directly to the referents of
the noun phrases bypassing the mediation of a persona, a speaker. For instance, much of the
perceptual immediacy of imagistic poems such as Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro” depends on
the nominal syntax involved (“The apparition of these faces in the crowd: Petals on a wet, black
bough,”).

Emotive Effects

(a) Syntactic Tension

In this “channel,” poets use the slowly unfolding temporal dimension of the syntax to exploit what
readers know about the normal finished form of syntactic structures by setting up structural
expectations at one point in a complex structure and then delaying the satisfaction of these
expectations until some later point in that structure.

(b) Rhythm

Here, poets manipulate the syntax for non-imitative, rhythmic effects. As with most rhythmic
phenomena, these effects are largely emotive and can be achieved us ing a variety of syntactic
strategies. First, as Dillon points out, syntactic inversions cut up intonational units and thus slow
down verse movement.15 For instance, a preposed phrase will usually be given a separate
intonational contour and will be set off sharply from the remaining part of the sentence by a
significant pause.

(b) Semantic Tension

In these cases, poets use the slowly unfolding temporal dimension of the syn tax to exploit what
readers know about the semantic interpretation of finished syn tactic structures by setting up
semantic expectations (i.e., presuppositions) and then frustrating these presuppositions later on. For
instance, Cummings often uses the pre suppositions associated with cleft structures to create anti-
climactic, ironic effects which both frustrate the reader’s expectations and further his thematic
purposes.

Semantic Process

Of course, the syntactic expansion outlined above is not just rhythmical and formal, but conceptual
as well. While the noun phrases in the first part of the poem merely describe and define, the parallel
modified noun phrases in the second part evaluate, characterize and summarize. The house
becomes a shut house; the wind, a poor wind; the persona’s life, his wonderful jealousy, and the
persona’s lover’s “walls”, the normal corners of her heart.

Together, then, the static syntactic parallels in the poem and the semantic and syntactic processes
which work within them generate just that tension which is characteristic of the feelings of the
spurned lover.

Semantic Interpretation

While these parallels and processes are powerful in themselves, Cummings further conveys the
estrangement of the two characters in the poem by careful ly manipulating the propositional form of
the syntax to minimize any reference to interaction between them. For instance, in the world of the
poem, all actions are intransitive or negated transitives. The wind/i peers, prowls, and roams while
the house/you sparkles, flowers, and does not observe.

Similarly, while pragmatically the poem sets up situations in which one must infer that the
house/you has indeed affected the wind/i, Cummings avoids the use of the causative verbs which a
direct expression of this interaction de mands substituting instead the stative, perfective participles
and adjectives cor responding to these causative verbs.