Republic of the Philippines

Province of Cebu
City of Talisay
TALISAY CITY COLLEGE
Poblacion, Talisay City, Cebu
1st Semester, Academic Year 2022-2023

Eng Elec 1: STYLISTICS AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

Course Material Writer Bernard Evangelicom V. Jamon Department Teacher Education

Teacher Contact No.

Program & Year
Course Description
Culminating Outcome
Midterm Unit Outcome
BSED English Credit Units 3
This course is a language and style course that will help the pre-service English
teachers in exploring primarily literary texts (prose, poetry, and drama) and
acquiring research-based knowledge and skills in discourse analysis through
various writing activities. Moreover, it focuses on students’ ability to critique
selected literary works applying the relationship between style and stylistics
using stylistic devices and an explanation on how language creates meaning
and effect. Therefore, they will be able to develop critical and higher-order
thinking skills in reading and doing literary studies for their students while
employing the conceptual framework and schema of linguistics and literature.
Compile various analyses of relevant written and oral discourse through research-
based knowledge on language and literature.
Formulate critical analyses of prose and poetry texts suitable for Grade 7 to Senior
High School students.

Curricular Yr.&
Student’s Name
Sec.
Contact No. Time Allotment 9 hours
Residence Inclusive Date/s

Course
Literary Poetry Stylistics
Material 4
CONTENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES
❖ Literary Poetry Stylistics At the end of this course material, you will…
✓ review poetry genres, language, devices;
techniques, and meaning in the light of stylistic
study;
✓ discuss a survey of poetry authors, their unique
styles and purposes of writing such poems; and,
✓ create stylistic analyses of poetry texts which
could be used for G7 to SHS English Literature.

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EXPLORE
Literary Poetry Stylistics
Poetry comes from the Greek word “poises” which means “making” or “creating”. Poetry is defined as any
kind of verbal or written language that is structured rhythmically and is meant to tell a story or express any kind of
emotion, idea, or state of being. Poetry is used to achieve this artistic expression in several ways (Ollila & Jantas, 2006
as cited in Jamon & Cabanes, 2019).
The following are the different types of poetry as cited in Jamon and Cabanes (2019).
1. Narrative Poetry- a form of poetry which tells a story in richly imaginative and rhythmical language, often
making use of the narrator and character as well.
The following are kinds of narrative poetry:
1.1. Epic- an extended narrative poem in elevated or dignified language celebrating the feats
of legendary or traditional hero.
1.2. Ballad- often folk origin and intended to be sung consisting of simple stanzas and usually
having a refrain.
1.3. Metrical Tale- a full-length novel or short story written in verse. It is told in a simple,
straightforward manner. The most popular of metrical tale is Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury
Tales” (Falca, 2002, as cited in Jamon & Cabanes, 2019).
1.4. Metrical Romance- is a long verse which deals about the ideals of chivalry, romantic love,
and religious elements and which have the characteristics of the middle ages when knighthood
was popular.
2. Dramatic Poetry- a play written in verse. This is usually written in blank verse. Some of the plays of
Shakespeare are dramatic poems such as Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and King Lear
(Falca, 2002).
The following are kinds of dramatic poetry:
2.1. Poetic Plays- to be spoken and presented on stage.
2.1.1. Comedy- a type of drama which aims to amuse and entertain. The motif of this dramatic
work is triumph over unpleasant circumstances by creating comic effects, resulting in a happy
or successful conclusion.
2.1.2. Tragedy- a type of drama in which the main characters are overthrown by the obstacles,
thus it ends with death.
2.1.3. Farce- an exaggerated comedy based on broadly humorous situations.
2.1.4. Historical Play- a drama about the lives of outstanding figures in history.
2.1.5. Melodrama- a play with sensational actions, a sentimental love story, extravagant
emotions, and, generally, a happy ending.
2.2. Masque- a form of court pageantry which was popular in England in the 16th century. The
actors were dressed in lavished costumes against lavish scenery and music.
2.3. Dramatic Monologue- a dramatic poem in which the speaker tells an audience about a
dramatic moment in his/her life and, in doing so, reveals his/her character. Some examples of
Dramatic Monologues is the work of Robert Browning which is “My Last Duchess” and the
classical work of T.S. Elliot, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.
3. Lyric Poetry- described as subjective in attitude and sensual in imagery and expression (Falca, 2002 as cited
in Jamon & Cabanes, 2019). A lyric poem provides feelings of joy, love, sorrow, or praise.
The following are kinds of lyric poetry:
3.1. Ode- a dignified, relatively long lyric poem formed in language and structure and exalted
in theme (Falca, 2002 cited in Jamon & Cabanes, 2019). One of the most popular odes is John
Keats’ “Ode to the Nightingale”.
3.2. Elegy- a poem of lament, meditating on the death of the individual.
3.3. Song- a lyric poem intended to be sung.
3.3.1. Sacred- are songs of praise to gods such as oratorios and cantatas.
3.3.2. Secular- have non-religious themes
3.4. Sonnet- a lyric poem consisting of fourteen iambic pentameter lines. An iambic foot
consists of two syllables with the accent falling on the second syllable. Pentameter comes
from the Greek word “penta” which means five of five feet. The following lines taken from
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet from the Portuguese” contain five iambic feet.
How do/ I love/ thee? Let/ me count/ the ways/.
I love/ thee to/ the depth/ and breadth/ and height/.

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 - Sonnet XLIII
There are three types of sonnets: the Shakespearean sonnet, Petrarchan sonnet, and Spenserian sonnet.
Shakespearean sonnet follows the rhyming scheme of ABAB/ CDCD/ EFEF/ GG/. Petrarchan sonnet
follows the rhyming scheme of ABBA/ ABBA/ CDEC/ DE/ or ABBA/ABBA /CDCD/CD, while the Spenserian
sonnet follows the rhyming scheme of ABAB/ BCBC/CDCD /EE. The subject matter treated in a sonnet is
usually serious or thoughtful, or the experience is significant and unusual (Falca, 2002 cited in Jamon &
Cabanes, 2019).
The poet in order to capture his/her readers’ feelings and imagination uses certain elements or qualities.
According to De Los Reyes and Romero (2004) cited in Jamon and Cabanes, (2019), “First, poetry uses heightened
language to convey meaning; second, poetry employs rhythmic patterns, although, varying across language and
time; third, poetry relays a message through a particular word syntax and distinct sound, so that, in relation to the
first characteristic, meaning is comprehended through connotation.”
The following are the Elements of Poetry.
FORM
Form is defined as the design or how it looks or arranged. Generally, poems are classified as fixed or closed
forms and open forms.
1. Closed form is visible on sight when seen on a paper. The verse or lines follow a pattern and have certain
measures and stanzas (De Los Reyes & Romero, 2004 as cited in Jamon & Cabanes, 2019).
Examples of this are: sonnets, couplets, epigrams, tercets, terza rima, limerick, clerihew (English), pantoum
(Malay), the vilanelle, sestina, rondeau, triolet (French), haiku and tanka (Japanese), rubaiyat stanza (Persian), ghazal
(Arabic), sapphics (Greek), and the blank verse (De Los Reyes & Romero, 2004 as cited in Jamon & Cabanes, 2019).
2. Open form or Free Verse is a form that has neither a rhyme scheme nor a basic meter. No pattern is
followed because the writer seeks new and individualistic arrangement of words and lines (De Los Reyes & Romero,
2004 as cited in Jamon & Cabanes, 2019).
The psalms, prose poems, visual poems, concrete poems, and other experimental poems such as found
poems, name poetry, chance poetry, and alphabet poems are examples of the open form poetry (De Los Reyes &
Romero, 2004 as cited in Jamon & Cabanes, 2019).

TONE
The tone of a poem conveys an attitude or feeling displayed by the author toward the subject or theme of
the poem. According to De Los Reyes and Romero (2004) as cited in Jamon and Cabanes (2019), “The tone may
express affection, wonder, humility, admiration, amusement, tenderness, playfulness, humor, sarcasm, contempt,
sadness, curiosity, doubt or grief.”

PERSONA
The persona of the poem is often referred to as the “mask” or the “voice” created by the poet. As what
Susan Sontag opined, “The mask is the face.” Thus, the persona serves as the speaker or character of the poem.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Figurative Language “states ideas in vivid and imaginative ways.”

RHYME
Rhyme refers to “the words that have different beginning sounds but whose endings sound alike, including
the final vowel sound and everything following it.”

According to De Los Reyes and Romero (2004) as cited in Jamon and Cabanes (2019), rhyme can be classified
into two:
1. according to position in the verse; and
2. according to the number of the syllables presenting the sounds.

There are several kinds of rhymes according to position in the line.

1. End rhyme simply means that the end words of the lines rhyme. Some lines may have to consecutive lines
that rhyme, or alternate lines may rhyme, or even more distant lines.
Example:
“In Flanders fields the poppies blow a
Between the crosses, row on row, a
That mark our place; and in the sky b
The larks, still bravely singing, fly. b
Scarce heard amid the guns below.” a
-In Flanders Fields by Colonel John McCrae

Example:

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 I was incarcerated by a cruel leader, a
asking for the price of my crushed spirit, b
the body is weak, so I must surrender, a
if spirit is defeated it embraced defeat b
-An Arm’s Length of Heaven by Amado V. Hernandez
2. Internal rhyme occurs at the middle or before the closing syllables.
Example:
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
-The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
Example:
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
-The Cloud by Percy Bysshe Shelley
3. Slant rhyme occurs when two words sound similar; but do not have a perfect rhyme.
Example:
The moon ran as I chase it in the middle of the night.
The bald man carries a bin as if he held the world.
Brothers get jail and life’s for sale.

De Los Reyes and Romero (2004) as cited in Jamon and Cabanes (2019) opined that rhymes according to
number of syllables which present the similarity of sound are:
a. Masculine rhyme, where the stressed sound is restricted to the final syllable as in “time” and “moon”,
making it more forceful and vigorous.
b. Feminine rhyme, where the correspondence of sound is found in two consecutive syllables marking the
end of a line as in “praying” and “soothing”. It is sometimes referred to as a double rhyme. It is used to create
some lightness and delicacy in movement.
c. Triple rhyme, a type reserved for satirical or humorous verse where the correspondence of sound is found
in three consecutive syllables, as in “humorous” and “violence”.
The rhyme scheme is a regular pattern of rhyming words in a poem. To indicate the rhyme scheme, one uses
lowercase or small letters, assigning the same letters to the same rhyme. This process is used frequently for the end
rhymes (De Los Reyes & Romero, 2004 p. 288 as cited in Jamon & Cabanes, 2019).

RHYTHM
Rhythm refers to the recurrence of stressed and unstressed (accented or unaccented) sounds in spoken or
written language.
Meter is measured by the number of feet in the line.
Monometer : one foot
Dimeter : two feet
Trimeter : three feet
Tetrameter : four feet
Pentameter : five feet
Hexameter : six feet
Heptameter : seven feet
Octameter : eight feet
The following are the types of metrical foot:
Stressed syllables are labelled with an accent mark: / Unstressed syllables are labelled with a dash: – Metrical
feet may be two or three syllables in length, and are divided by slashes: |
There are five basic rhythms:
Pattern Name Example
–/ Iamb/Iambic invite

Example: - / - / - / - / - /
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
- / - / - / - / - /
The lowing herds wind slowly o’er the lea.
-Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray
Pattern Name Example
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 /– Trochee/Trochaic deadline
Example: / - / - / - / - / -
"There they are, my fifty men and women."
- One Word More by Robert Browning
Pattern Name Example
––/ Anapest/Anapestic to the beach
Example: - - / - - / - - / - - /
The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold
- - / - - / - - / - - /
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold.
-The Destruction of Sennacherib by Lord Byron
Pattern Name Example
/–– Dactyl/Dactylic frequently
Example: / - - / - -
"Éve, with her basket, was
/ - - / - /
Deep in the bells and grass."
-Eve by Ralph Hodgson
Pattern Name Example
// Spondee/Spondaic true blue
Examples: / / /
Break, Break, Break
-Break, Break, Break by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Stanza is a group line, set off by a space, which usually has a set pattern of meter and rhyme.
Couplet - two-line stanza
Triplet - three-line stanza
Quatrain - four-line stanza
Sestet - six-line stanza
Septet - seven-line stanza
Octave - eight-line stanza

Stylistics Analysis of Poetry

Sharma (2019) cited five levels of Stylistic analysis of a poem. According to him, the following must be
considered when analyzing a poem using Stylistic analysis.
1. Phonological Level- This is the study of linguistic systems, specifically the way in which sound represents
differences of meaning in a language.
What to examine in phonological Level?
• Alliteration- It is the repetition of the initial consonant in two or more words.
• Consonance- The repetition of the consonant sound in the words before or after different vowel sounds
• Assonance- This is the repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds–especially in stressed syllable in a
sequence of nearby words.
• Rhyme- This the identity of terminal sound between accented syllables, usually occupying corresponding
positions in two or more lines of verse.
• Rhythm- This is the perceptual pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in a language.
• Onomatopoeia- This is a feature of sound patterning which is often thought to form a bridge between style
and content.
• Meter- This is determined by the pattern of stronger and weaker stresses in the syllables composing the
words in the verse-line.
2. Graphological Level- This is the whole writing system: “punctuation and paragraphing as well as spacing”.
What to examine in Graphological Level?
• Punctuation- These are the marks used in writing to separate sentences and their elements and to clarify
meaning. Punctuation is used to create sense, clarity and stress in sentences. You use punctuation marks to
structure and organize your writing.
• Stanza- This is a division of a poem consisting of a series of lines arranged together in a usually recurring
pattern of meter and rhyme.
• Spacing- This refers to the way that typing or printing is arranged on a page, especially in relation to the
amount of space that is left between words or lines.
• Upper case- This is a large alphabetic characters used in writing or printing proper names.
• Lower case- This is a letter written or printed in a size smaller than and often in a form differing from its
corresponding capital letter.
• Bold- This is a set of type characters that are darker and heavier than normal. A bold font implies that each
character was originally designed with a heavier appearance rather than created on the fly from a normal
character.

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 • Italics- This is a style of font that slants the letters evenly to the right. Use italic when you want to emphasize
a word or phrase in a sentence. Italicize a word or phrase that is in a different language.
• Capitalization- This is the writing of a word with its first letter in uppercase and the remaining letters in
lowercase
• Contracted form- These are shortened forms (usually auxiliary verb and the negative "not") in which one or
more letters have been omitted. Contractions are always added to the end of another word. They are widely
used in spoken English and very informal writing.
• Structure or Layout- This is a way that something is designed or arranged. Layout refers to the visual form of
the poem.
3. Morphological Level- This is the mental system involved in word formation or to the branch of linguistics that deals
with words, their internal structure, and how they are formed.
What to examine in Morphological Level?
• Compounding- This involves joining two or more primary words to form compounding words.
• Blending- This is a process of combining two separate forms to produce a single new term, typically by taking
only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of the other word: Smoke + fog = smog, motor +
hotel= motel, breakfast+ lunch= brunch etc.
• Clipping- This is a process of reducing certain elements of polysyllabic words into shorter forms to form new
words: Advertisement → Ad, influenza→ flu, cabriolet→ cab etc.
• Backformation- This is a reduction of certain letters of a word of one type to form a word of another type
involving a change a part of speech: Donation (n) →Donate (v) , writer (n) → write (v) , editor (n) → edit (v)
• Acronym- This is a process of forming a new word from the initial letters of a set of words: Compact disk→CD,
video cassette recorder→VCR, North Atlantic Treaty Organization→NATO.
• Coinage- This is the invention of totally new terms. Such names become general terms for any version of that
product: aspirin, nylon, Xerox etc.
• Borrowing- This refers to the taking over the words from other languages. English has become a rich world
language because it welcomes diverse languages of the world. Some borrowing words are: Garage (French),
Piano (Italian), Ghee (Hindi) etc.
• Modification- This is a process of deriving a new word by changing a sound segment or spelling from the
base: Man→ men, take→ took, goose→ geese etc.
• Reduplication- This is a process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is
repeated exactly or with a slight change. Reduplication is used in inflections to convey a grammatical
function, such as plurality, intensification, etc., and in lexical derivation to create new words. It is often used
when a speaker adopts a tone more "expressive" or figurative than ordinary speech and is also often, but not
exclusively, iconic in meaning: ping-pong, tick-tock, pitter-patter etc.
• Derivation- This is the process of creating new words through using prefixes that may change or may not a
part of speech class changing or class maintaining) and suffixes that change a part of speech: Able (adj)
→enable (v) : class changing prefix and happy(adj) →unhappy (Adj) : class maintaining prefix Hard (adj)
→hardness (n): class changing suffix and quick (adj) → quickly (adv): class changing suffix.
• Inflection- This is the process of creating new words through using only suffixes that do not change a part of
speech: cat (n) → cats (n) : class maintaining suffix and tall(adj) →taller (adj) : class maintaining suffix.
4. Lexical Level- This deals with level of “Lexis”. Lexis is the vocabulary items that make up a language or the body
of words known and used by a particular person.
What to examine in Lexis Level?
• Formal and Informal Words- Formal words are used in formal situations, whereas informal words are used in
informal situations. We use informal words with friends, children, and relatives.
• Slangs- These are very informal words and expressions that are more common in spoken language. They are
not thought to be suitable for formal situations. Common slangs are: Dough (money), dude (man), chuck
(food), kick a bucket (die), canned (drunk) etc.
• Archaic words- These words are very old fashioned words. These words are no longer in everyday use or have
lost a particular meaning in current usage but are sometimes used to impart an old-fashioned flavor to
historical poetry, or in standard conversation or writing just for a humorous effect.
• Cliché- This a phrase or an idea which is used so often that it is no longer interesting, effective or relevant. It
is a word or expression that has lost much of its force through overexposure. Every man jack (everyone);
pound of flesh (revenge); high and dry (left in helpless state) under a cloud (depressed) etc. are clichés.
• Jargons- These are technical words or expressions used by a particular profession or group of people. They
are difficult for others to understand. Collage, oil paint (arts); antibody, uterus (Biology); capital, budget
(business), electron, atom (chemistry) bug, refresh (computer) , writ, jury (law) la, note (music), x-axis, vertex
(mathematics) cyclone, equator (geography), coal, chalk (geology) etc. are jargons. We should analyze the
kinds of words and their role in the poem.
5. Syntactic Level- It deals with how words group together to make phrases and sentences. Syntax is related to the
formation of phrases, clauses and sentences.
What to examine in Syntactic Level?

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 • Internal structure of sentences
• Surface structure of the sentence
• Implied structure
• Parallelism (repetition identical statistical structures)
• Use of conjunctions , anaphora, cataphora, inversion, ellipsis, and refrain
• Inverted word order, omission of words
• Active or passive forms
6. Semantic Level- This deals with the meaning of words, phrases and sentences.
What to examine in Semantic Level?
• Figures of Speech- It includes metaphor, simile, personification and other literary devices.
• Idiom- This is the language or dialect of a group of people. It is a phrase or sentence whose meaning is not
clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit. A hue and cry (a loud
protest), lose heart (to grow discouraged) a dark horse (a person whose ability is unknown) etc. are examples
of idioms
• Colloquial- This is a variety of language commonly employed in conversation or other communication in
informal situations. Colloquial language is distinct from formal speech or formal writing.

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Jamon, B.E.V. & Cabanes, M.G.M. (2019). Creative Writing. National Library of the Philippines
Sharma, L. R. (2019). What to Consider While Executing a Stylistic Analysis of a Poem.

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