Central European Management Journal ISSN:2336-2693 | E-ISSN:2336-4890

Vol. 30 Iss. 3 (2022)

CONSTRUING BATIQUIN’S ROMANTIC POEM ‘LET ME’: FROM STRUCTURE

TO MEANING IN TEXTUAL METAFUNCTION

1Sugeng Purwanto, 2Idha Nurhamidah*

1
English Literature Department, Faculty of Law and Language.
Universitas Stikubank Semarang, Indonesia
2
English Literature Department, Faculty of language and Communication Science, Universitas
Islam Sultan Agung, Indonesia
Abstract
Apart from the diction, the structure contributes significantly to the intended meaning of a poem.
This article attempts to construe Randy Batiquin’s romantic poem entitled “Let me” (2018) from
the perspective of textual meaning, adopting Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) in
which it is theorized that a text, be it literary or non-literary, is developed employing a particular
thematic pattern to reach the intended meaning. It turns out that the use of repeated themes (Let
me) in most of the stanzas confirms that the poem is a strong proposal expressed in a humble
nature of male proposing female in search of love and mercy. The constant stanza, rhyme scheme
and connotative-metaphoric use of language in support of Theme-Rheme structure and thematic
pattern indicate a strongly structured form of text maintaining the tradition of literary values.
The poem is construed as a man trying to win a woman’s love, making use of her current situation
of broken heart with future promises of romance and justified God’s destiny. The readers of the
poem or listeners of the read poem are positioned as the woman in the poem who may or may not
grant the poet’s proposal of romantic unity.
Keywords: thematic progression; theme-rheme structure; poem; stanza; rhyme scheme; intended
meaning

INTRODUCTION
Of literary works, be they of prose, drama or poetry, a poem (of poetry) has been characterized
as having a compact, well-structured form of linguistic product (text) (Arafah & Pattu, 2022)
through which humans’ ideational, interpersonal and textual meanings can be expressed in one
unified whole of meaning pertinent to the poet’s intention (Ahmed & Akhtar, 2022; Jeffries, 2022;
Shufflebarger, 2022). It can also express a vivid story of life normally narrated in prose, such as
a short story or even a novel. It can, therefore, be said that a poet may reflect his or herself
regarding love, passion, ideology and many more, and so can he or she reflect those of others
depending on his or her intention. However much have poems be discussed in literary analyses,
mostly if not all, poems are dominated by love themes, written so beautifully with carefully-
chosen lexical items to accommodate humans’ heartfelt feelings, and well-structured syntax of
mostly in marked forms to reveal the intended meanings in a number of stanzas (Qobilova, 2022;
Rustamova, 2022).
Research on poems is therefore endless scientific endeavours involving even other
disciplines only to find that the more a particular poem is investigated, the newer novelties will
be revealed—such as multi-dimensional interpretation. However, it has long been practiced that
any form of literary works is analysed adopting the tradition of literary research methodology.
Rarely is a poem researched in a linguistic approach. This article employed one of the three

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linguistic metafunctions of Hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), namely the textual
metafunction (Irdayanti et al., 2022) out of the other two (ideational and interpersonal
metafunctions).
Theoretical Highlights
Despite the fact, as previously mentioned, that the study of literary works has been traditionally
approached by means of literary analytical framework, a few literary studies were found
employing linguistic approach (Swarniti, 2022; Wesley, 2022). Purwanto analysed Tess
Gallagher’s outstanding poem entitled ‘The Hug’ at discourse level, investigating the field and
tenor and mode of the discourse as the manifestation of register variables. It turns out that such
an approach can reveal the message of the poet in relation to other similar social events in
discursive practices. Another study of love poem in a systemic functional perspective has also
been undertaken (Purwanto and Nurhamidah 2018). A song has also been analysed employing a
mixed approach of literary and systemic functional perspectives (Nurhamidah and Purwanto,
2020). In short, it can be concluded that poems or song lyrics can be linguistically approached to
yield significant information related to the structure and meaning (message). The current study
differs significantly from the previous studies—yielding a novelty, that is to focus on Theme-
Rheme structure leading to thematic patterns of Hallidayan textual metafunction as a means of
construing poems, without leaving out entirely some literary analytical devices.
Likewise, it has been theorized that literary works, especially poems can be analysed using
linguistic resources (Ravid & Tolchinsky, 2002) within the domains of morphology (Jerniati et
al., 2022), corpus (Stifter et al., 2022), and lexico-semantic (Bouguelmouna, 2022). Some poems
have been analysed in each domain to justify how linguistic analytical frameworks are used in
studies of poetic texts. This article, as previously mentioned, made use of SFL’s theoretical
frameworks (Nagy, 2022) within the domain of textual metafunction (Irdayanti et al., 2022;
Kusumawardani & Putu Putra, 2021) regardless the other two—ideational (Sirait et al., 2022) and
interpersonal metafunctions (Vinchristo, 2022; X. Yang & Yin, 2022). However, literary
approach limited to stanza, rhyme scheme, connotative use of lexical items, and metaphorical
devices was still involved to complete the analysis.
Hallidayan EFL theorizes that textual domain of meaning (metafunction) represents how a
clause is structured in terms of theme and rheme (Matthiessen et al., 2020; Sakrikar, 2019). The
theme is the element serving as the point of departure of the message while the Rheme is the
remainder of the message—the part in which the Theme is developed (Hoang, 2022). There are
two types of ‘Theme’—unmarked and marked in which the former represents the normal (simple)
way of expressing messages while the later (marked) involves emotions of the speaker
(Anjaniputra et al., 2022; Djimet, 2022; Hoang, 2022; Jiang & Niu, 2022; Qin, 2022). For
example, in a clause John gave Marry a rose, it is clear that the Theme is John, which is also the
grammatical subject. The rest, gave Marry a rose is the Rheme, new information regarding what
John did. Such a Theme is called ‘unmarked Theme’. Meanwhile, in a clause A rose John gave
to Marry, it is a rose which is the Theme, also functioning as the psychological subject (of the
clause). It is the starting point of departure of the message. The rest, John gave to Marry, is the
new information regarding a rose. Such a Theme is called ‘marked Theme’’. The term
‘unmarked’ and ‘marked’ can be made much clearer, observing the morphological process of
verb. The verb ‘go’ which becomes ‘went’ in the past and ‘gone’ in the past participle is referred
to as the ‘marked’ form (irregular from). On the other hand, the verb ‘look’ which becomes
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‘looked’ in the past and another ‘looked’ in the past participle is referred to as ‘unmarked’ form
(regular form).
Theme also divides into a simple Theme as described above—forming a single constituent,
and a multiple Theme in which it consists of several elements (Hoang, 2022; Jiang & Niu, 2022),
functioning differently as exemplified in one line of a famous poetic lyrics (John Langstaff) oh
soldier, soldier, won’t you marry me. In this case the Theme is oh soldier soldier won’t you;
(multiple constituents) consisting of oh (continuative, textual), soldier soldier won’t (vocative,
finite, interpersonal), and you (topical, experiential). The Rheme is marry me as the new
information regarding the Theme. Thus, in deciding the boundary between Theme and Rheme, it
is necessary to determine which one is ’given information (Theme) and which one is new
information (Rheme). Another type of Theme is called complex Theme occurring in complex
clauses (Hoang, 2022; Pavavijarn, 2022; Qin, 2022), such as in What he wanted from his
girlfriend was a French kiss on her lips., in which the Theme consisting of a clause is What he
wanted from his girlfriend and the Rheme is was a French kiss on her lips.
Finally, a Theme, the so called ‘Hyper Theme when it functions as the Theme for a stanza
(Tilakaratna, 2022; Xuan, 2022) as exemplified in one of the stanzas of a poem:
We might be fifty, we might be five,
So snug, so compact, so wise are we,
Under the kitchen table leg
My knee is pressing against his knee
(Katherine Mansfield)—Poem 39
Two clauses We might be fifty, we might be five, clearly indicates that they are of Hyper
Theme functioning as the starting point of departure of the message expressed up to the rest of
the stanza. Meanwhile So snug, so compact, so wise are we (marked multiple Theme-1) and
Under the kitchen table leg (marked multiple Theme-2) emerge right before the Rheme My knee
is pressing against his knee—to end the stanza. Thus, as identified in terms of Theme-Rheme
structure, the poet can be argumentatively judged as being skilful in simplifying complex emotion
into poetry in a clear context. The stanza makes use of A-B-C-B rhyming.to give poetic flavour
and impression.
Regarding literary terms, as previously touched upon, the terms ‘stanza’, ‘rhyme scheme’,
‘connotative use of lexical items and metaphoric devices are still used in this study to complete
the analysis. However, they are complementary in nature for ease of describing the analytical
procedures, and meaning interpretation.
The current study therefore was aimed at justifying how poetic structure can be better
analysed using EFL theory in textual perspectives. Two research questions can be formulated as
(1) “What Theme-Rheme structure and thematic progression are employed in Batiquin’s romantic
poem entitled Let Me’?” and (2) How do thematic patterns contribute to the interpretation of
meaning?"
Regarding the object of the current study, it should be noted that “Let Me” is a romantic
poem written by Randy Batiquin (2018), a web developer, poet, song writer and blogger, who
was born in the Southern Philippines, Zamboanga to be exact. He is lucky enough as a digital
native who can make the best use of technology in support of his career. The poem has inspired
a number of love stories, one written as “I met a girl in an unexpected place and I never thought

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I’d fall in love with her. Getting to know each other, I realized we just share a lot of things in
common, We both come from a sad past that broke our hearts. But, I found home in her. I wrote
this poem for her to let her know that everything is gonna be alright from now on. Just let me take
care of you from here on out.
The poem was published in August, 2018. So well and romantically was it written that, up
to now, it has 8 love stories inspired, 64594 shared, 191 favourited, 2506 votes, and ratings of
4.46. Thus, it is by no means a representation of a good contemporary poem for analysis.

METHOD
Following the tradition of literary research, the current study is qualitative and interpretative in
which the data are described and analysed in narrative and arguments are based on linguistic and
literary theories (Gultom & Pintubatu, 2022; Ismail et al., 2022; Kusumawardani & Putu Putra,
2021). Social contexts might be created to illustrate the arguments. The findings would be referred
to other relevant findings for further confirmation in the discussion.
The data is a romantic poem directly copied from a website and pasted on a piece of paper
for analysis. Each line in one stanza was analysed in terms of Theme-Rheme structure based on
Hallidayan ESL analytical framework to arrive at thematic patterns throughout the poem
(Kusumawardani & Putu Putra, 2021; Pavavijarn, 2022; Xuan, 2022). Further analysis was
interpretatively performed to confirm the results (findings)—the message (meaning) of the poem
based on Theme-Rheme structural patterns and the thematic pattern (progression) from lines to
stanza and from stanzas to the whole unified poem. The type of stanza and the rhyme scheme,
connotation and metaphor were of significance to give more complete information of the results
(Kronfeld, 2022; Mabugu et al., 2022; Wahyuda, 2022).
Each stanza in ‘Let Me’ (the poem under study) is investigated in terms of The Theme-
Rheme structure of which the following theoretical terms were used.
1. Unmarked Vs. Marked Theme
2. Multiple Theme
3. Complex Theme
4. Hyper Theme
5. Complex Rheme
6. Types of Verb Processes
Based on the Thematic structure and progression (pattern), it would be much easier to construe
the poem, generating the intended meaning or message of the poem. In addition, just to confirm,
the use of connotative expressions by means of special lexical items to contextually and or
imaginatively mean something different from the original semantic properties is traditionally
significant in poetry interpretation. Finally, the stanza type, rhyme scheme, and metaphoric
devices were also of significance for a complete interpretation of the poem in question (Ismail et
al., 2022).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The current study was conducted to answer two research questions, namely (1) What Theme-
Rheme structure and thematic patterns are employed in Batiquin’s romantic poem entitled Let
Me? and (2) How do thematic patterns contribute to the interpretation of meaning to construe Let
Me, the poem in question.

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Theme-rheme structure
Described and argued below are the processes of identifying the Theme-Rheme structure and
thematic progression employed in Batiquin’s romantic poem entitled ‘Let Me’.
Displayed below is the first stanza of the poem:
Let me take care of your broken heart
and show you how to fly,
let me hold you gently by the hand
and kiss your tears goodbye

The Theme-Rheme structure can be seen in Table 1 below:

Table 1. Theme-rheme structure of the first stanza
Theme Rheme
Let me take care of your broken heart and show you how to
fly
Theme Rheme
let me hold you gently by and kiss your tears
the hand goodbye

The partial clause Let me is the unmarked multiple Theme and hyper Theme for the rest of the
Rhemes. It is termed as ‘unmarked’ since it complies with the regular grammar. It is also a
multiple Theme since it offers an experiential function (Let)—giving experience to the readers
(audience) of whatever later presented in the Rheme, and an interpersonal function (me)—asking
the counterpart (your, you) for an interpersonal tie. The Rheme is take care of your broken heart
and show you how to fly. The logical rationale for putting and show you how to fly in the second
line (of the stanza) is that it is hierarchical in nature. Without being let to take care of your (the
audience’s) broken heart, it is impossible for me (the poet) to show you (the audience) how to fly.
The other unmarked multiple Theme is Let me—stressing other experiential and
interpersonal functions which can also be expressed a predicated Theme It is I who will but the
poet maintains the use of unmarked multiple Theme. The Rheme hold you gently by hand and
kiss your tears goodbye. These two activities (hold and kiss) are hierarchical to each other apart
from the intention of the poet to make the second line (of the stanza) rhyme with the fourth line.
Thus, the rhyme scheme is A B C B.
The possible story behind the poem is that the poet (interpersonally related to me) falls in
love with a woman (interpersonally related to you) who has just had a broken heart. The poet
proposes that he would mend the broken heart by showing her how to fly. This is further
strengthened by proposing that he be let to hold her gently by the hand and kiss her tears goodbye,
implying to terminate the sorrows of broken heart.
From the first stanza above, it is evidently clear that the poet made use of connotative
expression to flavor the poem, such as in show you how to fly, which, by no means, refers to the
physical flying like a bird. Rather, it has something to do with showing you to get away from the
problem and be happy forever. Another use of connotative expression is kiss your tears goodbye.
It is interesting to learn that the word tears connotatively refers to pains (due to broken heart);
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while bye lexically means leaving out. The verb kiss indicates a romantic action. Thus, the whole
phrase kiss your tears bye poetically means to do anything possible to relieve the pains. The first
stanza implies the poet’s proposal to help the woman solve the problems.
Another Theme-Rheme structure analysis can be applied to the second stanza as follows:
Let me lead you to tomorrow’s light
and out of needless rain,
’cause all I ever want right now
is to see you smile again

Table 2. Theme-rheme structure of the second stanza

Theme Rheme
Let me lead you to tomorrow’s light and out of needless rain
Theme Rheme
‘cause all I ever want right is to see you smile again
now

The first two lines of the second stanza have a similar pattern to the first stanza the unmarked
multiple Theme Let me and hyper Theme for the two coordinating Rhemes, lead you to
tomorrow’s light and end out of needless rain. Connotatively speaking, the poet makes use of the
phrase tomorrow’s light to refer to future happiness and cures unnecessary pains of love, which
is connotatively referred to as out of needless rain. Thus, it can be said that the poet starts making
a promise.
A complex Theme ‘cause all I ever want right now is used to give a rationale for helping
the woman, namely as expressed in the Rheme is to see you smile again. The second stanza makes
use of A B C B rheme scheme, similar to the first stanza. In terms of the intended message, the
second stanza is a manifestation of the first stanza, that is to say that upon the first stanza
accomplished, the poet makes a promise—to make the woman happy.
The third stanza of the poem goes as follows:
Let me sing you all the songs I wrote
’til you sleep in my embrace,
and I’ll keep you safe and warm until
the sunlight strokes your face

The same rhyme scheme A B C B is maintained to keep the poetic style. The poet indicates that
the poem is of contemporary product by adding up a hypertext (link) in all the songs I wrote by
means of which to indicate that the poet is also a song (lyric) writer and to let the audience to
click on the link to enjoy the song lyrics. It can, therefore, be said that the third stanza presents
ways to make the woman happy of which the thematic structure can be outlined below:

Table 3. Theme-rheme structure of the third stanza

Theme Rheme
Let me sing you all the songs wrote

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Theme Rheme
‘till you sleep in my embrace
and I’ll keep you safe and warm
until
the sunlight strokes your
face

The third stanza, in syntactic fact, consists of one long clause complex Let me sing you all
the songs I wrote ‘till you sleep in my embrace and I’ll keep you safe and until the sunlight stroke
your face. Therefore, the Theme Let me can be considered as a hyper Theme. The clause complex
is cut off into four lines to keep the poetic form. So skillfully is the clause cut off that the second
line rhymes with the fourth line to keep the ABCB rhyme scheme. There is one complex rheme
in the third stanza
The fourth stanza presents a quite interesting theme-rheme structure as displayed in Table
4 below:
Table 4. Theme-rheme structure of the fourth stanza
Theme Rheme
Let me bring you up to the mountain’s peak
Theme Rheme
and I’ll let touch the sky to remain you of the strength I see when I look
you into your eyes

The stanza has both multiple and hyper Theme Let me for the complex Rheme that follows. In
the fourth stanza, the poet has developed his wild imagination as connotatively shown in the first
line bring you up to the mountain’s peak which means making love (having sex) in a slow and
romantic way though still framed within proposal level Let me.
Proudly as he is, he will bring her to climax as connotatively shown in the second line and
I’ll let you touch the sky only to give evidence of the strength when they both look at each other’s
eyes, dozing down until the morning comes, referring back to the last line of the third stanza and
I’ll keep you safe and warm until the sunlight strokes your face (Morning). Here is the fourth
stanza to confirm that it is the manifestation of the third stanza.
Let me bring you up the mountain’s peak
and I’ll let you touch the skies,
to remind you of the strength I see
when I look into your eyes

The fifth stanza represents ‘the afterglow’ borrowing a term from sex psychology, meaning
a period of time after loving making is over. The counterpart of ‘afterglow’ is ‘foreplay’ that has
been represented in the third stanza.
Described in Table 5 below is the Theme-Rheme structure of the fifth stanza.
Table 5. Theme-rheme structure of the fifth stanza
Theme Rheme

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Let me kiss and show you what is love and the happiness it brings
Theme Rheme
you’ll sail again like a butterfly endowed with pretty
wings

The poet employs hyper Theme Let me for the complex Rheme. He proposes to kiss and
show what is love with a link to click on for the real meaning of love in his other poem for her.
He promises to make love again (sail again) and treats her like a butterfly endowed with pretty
wings—a nice metaphor for a romantic poem. Here is the complete fifth stanza.
Let me kiss and show you what is love
and the happiness it brings,
you’ll sail again like a butterfly
endowed with pretty wings

The sixth stanza is even more promising since it involves God’s destiny with Theme-
Structure as follows:

Table 6. Theme-rheme structure of the sixth stanza

Theme Rheme
Let me do all these to let you see
Theme Rheme
our fates are intertwined
you are the accidental precious gem
Theme Rheme
Accidental precious gem I’ve long to find

The involvement of God’s destiny can be seen from the choice of words fates and accidental. The
poet tries to refer to God, the Almighty and Undeniable just to convince her girlfriend about his
love proposal. Here is the complete sixth stanza

Let me do all these to let you see

our fates are intertwined,
you’re the accidental precious gem
I’ve waited long to find

The seventh stanza employs nature to further convince his girlfriend how they are blessed
by nature as God’s manifestation as shown below:

The earth and sky conspired we meet

they knew we both belong,

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to each like words and lovely notes

give life to every song

Presented below is the Theme-Rheme structure to give further evidence of how the stanza is
developed.

Table 7. Theme-rheme structure of the seventh stanza

Theme Rheme
The earth and sky conspired we meet
Theme Rheme
they knew we both belong
Theme Rheme
we both belong to each like words and lovely
notes
give life to every song

The seventh stanza is developed on the basis of hyper Theme, the earth and the sky, which is then
repeated as another Theme they. Using a metaphoric device, the poet and his girlfriend are
symbolized as words and lovely notes—meaning that they are inseparable. Such a metaphor
resembles fish and water.
The final stanza is persuasive and very decisive. The poet has no more to write—and
therefore ends the poem with in persuasion entailing God’s destiny as shown below:
So fly with me my beautiful one
it’s time we leave the past,
I’m yours to keep and you are mine
we’re fin’lly home at last..
The Theme-Rheme structure is very unique—quite different from the other preceding stanzas. It
is so final as described above.
Table 8 Theme-rheme structure of the eighth stanza
Theme Rheme
So fly with me my beautiful one
It’s time we leave the past
Theme Rheme
I’m yours to and you are mine we’re fin’lly home at last
keep

The Theme ‘Let me’ identified as a proposal is not any more used. The poet, so confidently, is
determined to give a persuasive order in a Theme ‘So fly’ which connotatively means ‘So be my
wife’. Another Theme (complex Theme) It’s time indicates that things should be done in a hurry.
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The Rheme we leave the past means we have to forget the past for only one reason expressed in
a complex Theme I’m yours to keep and you are mine and a Rheme we are fin’lly home at last
indicating that the final goal is getting married.
Thematic patterns to meaning interpretation
Upon completion of description of the Theme-Rheme structure in each stanza of the poem,
literarily termed as Quatrain (stanza with four lines) along with the connotative meanings, and
metaphoric use of words contained therein, the next is to find out how thematic patterns contribute
to the interpretation of the poem. Displayed below are the thematic patterns of the poem.

Diagram-1. Thematic patterns of the poem

The grand thematic pattern is the starting point of departure governs the whole lot of
information up to the end of the poem. From this stanza, several number of love stories, as
previously mentioned with one example, may be developed as the foreground of the poem.
However, this article creates a different love story foregrounding the poem. A man (the poet) just
found a woman who had had a broken heart—due to one thing or another. The man took a pity
and finally decided to love the woman. He expressed his feelings through a romantic poem
entitled Let me. He used much of his imagination which can be identified from the use of the
phrase let me in most of the stanzas. Thus, all occur in mental processes without any physiscal
activities toward the woman whatsoever
A love proposal was made in the first stanza and further elaboarated in the second stanza.
To realize the proposal, he tried to make a concrete description of what he was going to do in the
following four stanzas in which the climax of the poem was the fourth stanza (pattern-3). He
would make love with her in ultimate romances driving her to orgasm (touch the sky) to evidently
show off mutual power of love.
The fifth stanza describes what he would do in the afterglow with secured and warm
embraces till the sunlight stroke her face (referring back to pattern-3). This is supposed to be the
best love endeavor. In order for the poem to be more touching, the poet ornamented it with God’s
destiny expressed in the sixth stanza (pattern 5) and further strengthened in the seventh stanza
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where nature was invloved. The poem concludes in the eighth stanza with a persuasive blow as
the concluding pattern. The readers positioning is also clearly indicated from the use of the first
and second personal pronouns, namely they are positioned as the woman with whom the poet is
falling in love and awaiting agreement.
From this point, it is justified that thematic patterns help much in identifying the flow of the
poem for a better interpretation. The attempt of using SFL of Hallidayan theories in literary
anlysis still requires further research in order to come up with more vivid findings.
CONCLUSION
Much has been discussed regarding the use of linguistic approach especially Hallidayan EFL. It
evidently turns out that There-Rheme structure, leading to thematic patterns does help construe
any poetic form (poem) in perspectives of chronological events (of the poem). Combined with
special touches of literary analytical devices, such as stanza, rhyme scheme, connotation, and
metaphor, the analysis becomes justifiable and more scientific. However, the jungle has just been
opened. There are things out there in need of further explorations. Therefore, challenges ahead
are awaiting future analysts within a mixed approach of linguistics and literature.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The research team is deeply indebted to Research and Community Services Division of
Universitas Islam Sultan Agung Semarang and Universitas Stikubank Semarang for
reimbursement of publication finance.

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