Ferdinand de Saussure Essay

stylistics is the think oer and interpretation of text editions from a linguistic perspective. As a classify it links literary condemnation and philology, scarce has no autonomous domain of its own. 12 The want object of rhetorical studies is literature, and if non exclusively high literature yet also other micturates of indite texts some(prenominal)(prenominal)(prenominal) as text from the domains of advertising, pop culture, political science or religion.3 Stylistics also fires to establish principles loose of exempting the finical choices make by individuals and kindly groups in their intention of oral communication, such as kindlyisation, the production and reception of meaning, critical discuss analysis and literary criticism. Other births of stylistics include the use of intercourse, including regional accents and peoples dialects, descriptive wording, the use of grammar, such as the busy voice or peaceful voice, the distri bargonlyion of sente nce lengths, the use of triggericular(a) verbiage registers, and so onIn addition, stylistics is a distinctive destination that whitethorn be used to de marginine the acquirenections surrounded by the throw and make within a disperseicular variety of speech communication. Thitherfore, stylistics looks at what is going on within the phrase what the linguistic associations be that the tendency of spoken panache of verbalize reveals. * Early 20th coulomb The analysis of literary ardour goes back to Classical rhetoric, except ripe stylistics has its roots in Russian Formalism,4 and the cogitate Prague School, in the early twentieth century.In 1909, Charles B on the wholeys Traite de stylistique francaise had proposed stylistics as a distinct academic clear to concomitant de Saussurean linguistics. For Bally, Saussures linguistics by itself couldnt fully take out the language of personal expression. 5 Ballys calcu latissimus dorsior programme fittingted well with the aims of the Prague School. 6 Building on the ideas of the Russian Formalists, the Prague School develop the concept of foregrounding, whereby poetical language stands out from the background of non-literary language by government agency of deviation (from the norms of usual language) or parallelism.7 According to the Prague School, the background language isnt fixed, and the relationship amongst poetic and ein truthday language is endlessly shifting. 8 new-fashioned twentieth century Roman Jakobson had been an active member of the Russian Formalists and the Prague School, before emigrating to the States in the 1940s. He brought in concert Russian Formalism and Ameri trick stark naked lit crit in his Closing Statement at a conference on stylistics at Indiana University in 1958.9 Published as linguals and Poetics in 1960, Jakobsons rattle on is often credited with organism the counterbalance coherent exploitulation of stylistics, and his melody was that th e study of poetic language should be a sub-branch of linguistics. 10 The poetic function was one of sixer general functions of language he depict in the lecture. Michael Halliday is an important figure in the development of British stylistics. 11 His 1971 study Linguistic Function and literary style An interrogation into the Language of William Goldings The Inheritors is a tombstone essay.12 One of Hallidays contributions has been the use of the term register to explain the connections between language and its context. 13 For Halliday register is distinct from dialect. Dialect refers to the familiar language of a lay out goingicular substance abuser in a bizarre(prenominal) geographic or social context. Register describes the choices make by the user,14 choices which depend on trine variables field (what the dismantleicipants ar actually pursue in doing, for instance, discussing a specific vanquish or topic),15 tenor (who is taking part in the exchange) and mode (the use to which the language is being put).Fowler comments that different fields germinate different language, most obviously at the aim of vocabulary (Fowler. 1996, 192) The linguist David vitreous silica points out that Hallidays tenor stands as a roughly equivalent term for style, which is a to a greater extent specific alternative used by linguists to eliminate ambiguity. (Crystal. 1985, 292) Hallidays one-third category, mode, is what he refers to as the symbolic organisation of the government agency. Downes recognises two distinct aspects within the category of mode and proposes that non only does it describe the relation to the sensitive written, spoken, and so on, but also describes the music genre of the text.(Downes. 1998, 316) Halliday refers to genre as pre-coded language, language that has non b atomic number 18ly been used before, but that predetermines the weft of textual meanings. The linguist William Downes makes the point that the important characterist ic of register, no matter how peculiar or di meter, is that it is obvious and immediately recognisable. (Downes. 1998, 309) Literary stylistics In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, Crystal observes that, in practice, most stylistic analysis has essay to deal with the complex and valued language within literature, i. e.literary stylistics.He goes on to say that in such testing the scope is around beats narrowed to repress on the much striking marks of literary language, for instance, its deviant and abnormal features, kinda than the full(a)er structures that ar found in whole texts or dis melts. For example, the compact language of indite line is to a greater extent(prenominal) worryly to reveal the secrets of its construction to the stylistician than is the language of plays and novels. (Crystal. 1987, 71). numbers As well as conventional styles of language in that location ar the unconventional the most obvious of which is rhyme.In Practical Stylistics, HG W iddowson examines the traditional form of the epitaph, as found on straitsstones in a cemetery. For example His memory is loved today As in the min he passed away. (Ernest C. Draper Ern. Died 4. 1. 38) (Widdowson. 1992, 6) Widdowson makes the point that such sentiments ar usually not genuinely interesting and suggests that they whitethorn even be dismissed as crude oral carvings and crude vocal disturbance (Widdowson, 3). Nevertheless, Widdowson recognises that they ar a rattling real attempt to convey feelings of human loss and keep up affectionate re shows of a beloved booster station or family member.However, what may be seen as poetic in this language is not so much in the formulaic phraseology but in where it appears. The verse may be given unwarranted reverence precisely because of the sombre situation in which it is placed. Widdowson suggests that, un exchangeable words gear up in stone in a graveyard, poetry is unorthodox language that vibrates with inter-textua l implications. (Widdowson. 1992, 4) twain problems with a stylistic analysis of poetry argon noted by PM Wetherill in Literary Text An trial run of Critical Methods.The first is that on that point may be an over-preoccu knockion with one particular feature that may well minimise the importee of others that argon as important. (Wetherill. 1974, 133) The second is that whatever attempt to see a text as simply a collection of stylistic elements will tend to trim back other ways whereby meaning is produced. (Wetherill. 1974, 133) Implicature In Poetic Effects from Literary Pragmatics, the linguist Adrian Pilkington analyses the idea of implicature, as instigated in the old work of Dan Sperber and Deirdre Wilson.Implicature may be divide into two categories unanimous and weak implicature, however between the two extremes there are a variety of other alternatives. The strongest implicature is what is in spades implied by the speaker or writer, plot of ground weaker implicatur es are the abundantr possibilities of meaning that the attender or endorser may conclude. Pilkingtons poetic effects, as he ground the concept, are those that achieve most relevance finished a wide multitude of weak implicatures and not those meanings that are simply read in by the hearer or reader.Yet the distinguishing instant at which weak implicatures and the hearer or readers conjecture of meaning sidetrack remains highly subjective. As Pilkington says there is no clear cut-off point between assumptions which the speaker truely endorses and assumptions derived strictly on the hearers responsibility. (Pilkington. 1991, 53) In addition, the stylistic qualities of poetry gutter be seen as an accompaniment to Pilkingtons poetic effects in understanding a poesys meaning. Stylistics is a valuable if windy approach to criticism, and compels upkeep to the poesys details.Two of the three simple exercises performed here show that the poem is deficient in structure, and c arrys to be radically re vagabond. The third sheds combust on its content. Introduction Stylistics applies linguistics to literature in the hope of arriving at analyses which are more broadly based, close and objective. 1 The pioneers were the Prague and Russian schools, but their approaches concur been appropriated and prolonged in recent eld by radical theory.Stylistics keister be evaluative (i. e. reckon the literary worth(predicate) on stylistic criteria), but more commonly attempts to simply analyze and describe the workings of texts which direct already been selected as noteworthy on other grounds. Analyses can appear objective, expand and technical, even requiring computer assistance, but some caution is removeed. linguistics is currently a battlefield of contending theories, with no settlement in sight. Many critics have no formal training in linguistics, or even proper reading, and are apt to anatomy on theories (commonly those of Saussure or Jacobson) that are inappropriate and/or no tenaciouser accepted.Some of the commonest terms, e. g. dim structure, foregrounding, have little or no experimental declare. 2 Linguistics has rather different objectives, moreover to study languages in their entirety and generality, not their use in art forms. Stylistic excellence intelligence, originality, constriction and variety of verbal devices play their part in literature, but aesthetics has long recognized that other aspects are equally important fidelity to experience, emotional shaping, solid content.Stylistics may well be frequent because it regards literature as simply part of language and therefore (neglecting the aesthetic dimension) without a privileged status, which al busteds the literary canon to be replaced by one more politically or sociologically acceptable. 3 wherefore and because employ stylistics at all? Because form is important in poetry, and stylistics has the largest inventory of analytical weapons. muchover, stylist ics need not be reductive and simplistic. There is no need to embrace Jacobsons theory that poetry is characterized by the projection of the paradigmatic axis vertebra onto the syntagmatic one.4 Nor accept Bradfords theory of a double gyre 5 literature has to a fault amply varied a history to be fitted into such a straitjacket. Stylistics suggests why certain devices are effective, but does not provide recipes, any more than theories of musical amity explains away the gifts of individual composers. Some stylistic analysis is to be found in most types of literary criticism, and differences between the traditional, New reprehension and Stylistics approaches are often matters of fierceness.Style is a term of approbation in e genuinelyday use (that woman has style, etc.), and may be so for traditional and New Criticism. exactly where the first would judge a poem by elongation to typical work of the period (Jacobean, Romantic, Modernist, etc. ), or according to genre, the New C riticism would probably simply note the conventions, explain what was unclear to a modern audience, and then pass on to a detailed analysis in terms of verbal density, complexity, ambiguity, etc. To the Stylistic critic, however, style means simply how something is expressed, which can be analyse in all language, aesthetic and non-aesthetic. 6Stylistics is avery technical subject, which hardly makes for engrossing, or indeed un litigious, 7 reading. The treatment here is very simple just the bare mug up, with some references cited. Under unhomogeneous categories the poem is analyzed in a dry manner, the more salient indications noted, and some recommendations made in Conclusions. Published Examples of Stylistic Literary Criticism G. N. Leechs A Linguistic Guide to side of meat Poetry (1969) Laura Browns black lovage Pope (1985) Roy Lewiss On variation french Verse A employment in Poetic Form (1982) George Wrights Shakespeares Metrical Art. (1988)Richard Bradfords A Lingu istic History of English Poetry (1993) Poem The Architects provided, as youd pay, they are very Impatient, the buildings, having much in them Of the unvoiced breaker of the jointure Sea, flurrying The linchpin, lifting the pebbles, fractureing them With a ill-humoured roar against the centre They are still of the cliffs higher of course, More burdensome, underwritten as It were with prehistoric days cloud And gleam, unyielding, part of the Silicate of gawk lives, distant and heterogeneous As the whir bureaucrats allow in And colonized with java in the cover pallets, Awaiting the extend and the incision meeting Except that these do not k instanter it, at least do not Seem to, being busy, generally.So maybe it is only on those clear, almost Vacuumed afternoons with form upon ground level Of concrete want rib- hit the books packed above them, And they light-headed with the fashiony airicape whirlpoolning around, and muzzy, a neuralgy Calling at ergodi c a deal fallible relations, a phone closed chain in a distant built in bed they cannot get to, That they draw attentive, or we do these Divisions persisting, indeed what we talk about, We, constructing these webs of buildings which, Caulked like great whales about us, are always. a pine away(predicate) that some trick of the light or weather Will rig out them as friends, pleading and flailing And woof with liquefied but unbearable melodies Us in mystic hinterlands of incurved tripe. C. John Holcombe 1997 Metre though apparently iambic, with five examinees to the line, the quantity shows some(prenominal) reversals and substitutions. Put at its simplest, with / representing a strong stress representing a weak stress x representing no stress, and trying to fit lines into a pentameters, we have - / x x x / - x / x precisely as youd ex pect they are ve ry x / x x / x / x x x.Im pat ient the build ings, hav ing much in them x x x / x x / / x x Of the heav y ledge man of the North Sea, flurr ying x / - / x x / x / x The grit, lift ing the pebbl es, fling ing them x / - / x x / x With a hoarse roar a gainst the agg re gate x x / x / / x x / They are com posed of, the cliffs high er of course / x - / x / x More burd en some, un der writ ten as x / x / - / - / x / It were with historic days o ver cast x / x. / x - / x x And glit ter ing, ob du rate, part of the - / x x x / - / - / x x / x x Sil icate of tough lives dist ant and in tricate - x / x / x - / x As the whir ring bu reau crats let in x / x x / x x / x / x And set tled with cof fee in the con crete pal lets x / x x / x x / x / x A wait ing the post and the de part ment meet ing x x / x / x x / x Ex cept that these do not sack out it, at least do not - / x / x / x / x x. Seem to be ing bus y gen ER all y x / x x / x x / x / x So per haps it is on ly on those cloud less al most - / x / x x / x x / x Vac uumed af ter noons with ti ER u pon ti ER x / x / / - / x / x Of con Crete like rib bones packed a bove them x / / x x / / x And they light head ed, with the lively air i ness - / x x / x / x x / x x Spin ning a round and muz zy, a neu ral gia - / x x / x x / x / x x / . Cal ling at ran dom like frail re lat ions a phone - / x x x / x / x x / x / x Ring ing in a dist ant of fice they can not get to x / x / x / x x / /- That they be come at ten tive, or we do these x / x x / x x / x / x / Di vis ions per sist ing, in deed what we talk a bout - / x / x x / x / x We, con struct ing these webs of build ings which - / x / / x / x x / x Caulk Ed like great whales a bout us are al ways x / x x / x x / x / x .A ware that some trick of the light or weath ER / x x / - / x x / x Will change them as friends plead ing and flail ing x / x / x x / x x / x x And fill with plac id but UN bear able mel odies - / x - / x x x / / Us in deep hint erlands of in curved glass Poets learn to think t heir spirits, but even to the experienced writer these (tedious) exercises can pinpoint what the ear suspects is faulty, suggest where improvements lie, and show how the beatnik is making for variety, broad consistency, shaping of the lineage and emotive appeal.though other scansions are certainly manageable in the lines above, the most striking feature will remain their irregularity. Many lines can only roughly be called pentameters Lines 16 and 17 are strictly hexameters and lines 27 and 28 are tetrameters. In fact, the lines do not read like pinhead verse. The metre is not iambic in many areas, but trochaic, and indeed insistently dactylic in lines 9 and 10, 21 and 22 and 28. Line 27 is predominantly anapaestic, and line 3 could (just) be scanned x x / x / x x / / x x Of the heavy ledgeman of the North Sea flurr ying.Reflective or meditative verse is generally written in the iambic pentameter, and for good causality the benefit of past examples, readers expectations , and because the iambic is the nearest to everyday speech flexible, unemphatic, expressing a wide range of social registers. Blank verse for the stage may be very irregular but this, predominantly, is a unflurried poem, with the falling rhythms inducing a mood of reflection if not melancholy. What is being move? Suppose we set out the argument (refer to rhetorical and other analyses), tabbing and vacate tabbing as the reflections as they search more or less private 8 1.But, as youd expect, 2. they are very impatient, the buildings, 3. having much in them of the heavy surf of the North Sea, 4. flurrying the grit, 5. lifting the pebbles, 6. flinging them with a hoarse roar against the aggregate they are composed of the 7. cliffs higher of course, more 8. burdensome, 9. underwritten as it were with past days 10. overcast and glinting, 11. obdurate, 12. part of the silicate of tough lives, 13. distant and intricate as 14. the go bureaucrats 15. permit in and settled with coffee i n the concrete pallets, awaiting the post and the department meeting 16. excerpt that these do not know it,17. at least do not have the appearance _or_ semblance to, being busy, 18. generally. 19. So perhaps it is only on those cloudless, almost vacuumed afternoons with tier upon tier of concrete like rib bones packed above them, and 20. they light-headed 21. with the drear airiness go around around, and 22. muzzy, a 23. neuralgia trade at random like 24. frail relations, a 25. phone sonorousness in a distant government agency they cannot get to, that 26. They become attentive, 27. or we do 28. these divisions persisting, 29. indeed what we talk about, 30. we, constructing these webs of buildings which 31.Caulked like great whales about us, are 32.always cognizant that some trick of the light or weather will dress them as friends, 33. pleading and flailing and 34. fill with imperturbable but unbearable melodies 35. us in deep hinterlands of incurved glass. The structure should now be clear. Where Eliot created new forms by stringing together unremarkable pentameters, 8 this poem attempts the reverse to redo an irregular ode-like structure as pentameters. And not over-successfully many of the rhythms seemed unduly confined. But once returned to the form of an 18th century Pindaric ode, however unfashionable today, the lines regain a structure and integrity.Each starts with a marked stress and then tails away, a feature emphasise by the near patterns. 9 Sound Patterning To these sound patterns we now turn, adapting the International Phonetic Alphabet to hypertext markup language restrictions 1. But as youd expect u a U e e b t z y d ksp kt 2. They are very impatient the buildings A a(r) e E i A e e i i th v r mp sh nt th b ld ngz 3. Having much in them of the heavy surf of the North Sea a i u i e o e e e(r) o e aw E h v ng m ch n th m v th h v s f v th n th s .4. flurrying the grit u E i e i fl r ng th gr t 5. lifting the pebbles i i e e l ft ng th p b lz 6. flinging them with a hoarse roar against the aggregate they are composed of i i e i e aw aw e A e a E A A a(r) o O o fl ng ng th m w th h s r g nst th gr g t th k MP zd v 7. the cliffs higher of course more e i I e o aw aw th kl fs h v s m 8. burdensome u(r) e e b d ns m 9.underwritten as it were with past days u e i e a i (e)r i a(r) A nd r t n z t w w p st d z 10. overcast and glinting O e(r) a(r) a i i v k St nd gl NT ng 11. obdurate o U A bd r t 12. part of the silicate of tough lives (a)r o e i i A o u I p t f th s l k t v t f l vz 13. distant and intricate i a a i i e d St NT nd NT r k t 14. as the whirring bureaucrats a e e(r) i U O a z th w r ng b r kr ts 15.let in and settled with coffee in the concrete pallets e i a e ie i o E i e o E a e l t n nd s tl d w th k f n th k Kr t p l Ts awaiting the post and the department meeting e A i e O a e E e E i w t ng th p St nd th d p tm NT m t ng 16. except that these do not know it e e a E U o O i ks pt th th z d n t n t 17. at least do not seem to being busy a E U o E U E i i E t l St d n t s m t b ng b z /td 18.generally e e a E j nr l 19. so perhaps it is only on those cloudless almost vacuumed afternoons O e(r) a i i O o O ou e aw O a U a(r) e oo s p h ps t z nl n th z kl dl s lm St v k md ft n nz with tier upon tier of concrete like rib bones packed above them and i E e(r) e o E e(r) o o E I i O a e u e a w th t p n t v k nkr t l k r b b nz p Kt b v th m nd 20. they light headed A I e e th l t h d d 21.with the blue airiness spinning around and i e U (A)r i e i i e ou a w th th bl r n s sp n ng r nd nd 22. muzzy a u E e m z 23. neuralgia calling at random like U a E a aw i a a o I n r lj k l ng t r nd m l k 24. frail relations a A e A e e fr l r l zh nz 25. phone ringing in a distant office they cannot get to that O i i i e i a o i A a o e oo a f n r ng ng n d St NT f s th k n t g t t th 26.they become attentive A E u a e i th b k m t NT v 27. or we do aw E oo w d 28. these divisions persisting E i i e e(r) i i th z d v zh nz p s St ng 29. indeed what we talk about i E o E aw e ou in d wh t w t k b t 30. we constructing these webs of buildings which E o u i E e o i i i w k nz str Kt ng th z w bs v b ld ngz wh Ch 31. seal off like great whales about us are aw I A A e ou u a(r) k kd l k gr t w lz b t s 32. always aware that some trick of the light or weather will dress them as friends aw A e ( A)r a u i o e I aw e e(r) i e e a e lw z w th t s m tr k v th l t w th w l dr s th m z Fr ndz 33. pleading and flailing E i a A i pl d ng nd fl l ng 34. will fill with placid but unbearable melodies i i i a i u u A(r) a e e O E f l w th PL s d b t n b r b l m l d z 35.us in deep hinterlands of incurved glass u i E i e a o i e(r) a(r) s n d p h NT l ndz v nk v d GL s Sound in poetry is an immensely complicated and contentious subject. Of the seventeen different employments listed by Masson 10 we consider seven 1. Structural emphasis All sections are structurally emphasized to some extent, but note the use (in decreasing hardness) of * plosive consonants in sections 1, 5, 6, 7, 10-13, 19, 28-50 31 and 35. * fricative and aspirate consonants in sections 2, 3, 6, 7, 12, 19, 25, 28, 32, 35.* liquid and nasal consonants in sections 3, 4, 12, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 31-35. Also * predomination of front vowels in all sections but 6, 7, 11, 16, 17, 19 and 31. * predominance of vowels in ordinary positions only sections 16 and 17 having several(prenominal) high vowels and section 3 low vowels. 2. Tagging of sections Note sections 1, 7, 13 and 15. 3. Indirect support of argument by related echoes * wide used, most obviously in sections 3-7, 12-13, and 15. 4. exemplifying mime mouth movements apes expression * Sections 2, 6, 11-13, 19, 31 and 35. 5. Illustrative painting * Sections 3-6, 10-13, 15, 19 and 33. intimately sections are closely patterned in consonants. Those which arent (and therefore need attention if consistency is to be maintained) are perhaps 8, 9, 14, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26 and 27. Originally the poem was cast in the form of irregular pentameters. But if this is set aside in favour of the 35 sections listed above, how are these sections to be link up in a self-evident and please form? A little is constituted by alliteration * f in sections 3 to 7. * s and t in sections 12 to 15 * w in sections 29 to 32 And also by the predominance of front and intermediate level vowels, but these do not touchstone to much.Certainly we do not learn that the overall shaping of the poem emphasizes the argument or content. Sociolinguistics Language is not a neutral medium but comes with the contexts, ideologies and social intentions of its speakers written in. Words are documentation entities, things which are constantly being diligent and only half taken over carrying opinions, assertions, beliefs, information, emotions and intentions of others, which we partially accept and modify. In this sense speech is dialogic, has an internal polemic, and Bakhtins insights into the multi-layered nature of language (heteroglossia) can be extended to poetry.11 Much of Postmodernist piece of writing tries to be very unliterary, incorporating the raw worldly of everyday speech and writing into its creations. This poem seems rather different, a somewhat remote control tone and elevated diction applying end-to-end. Let us see whats achieved by grouping under the various inflections of the speaking voice. * urgently confidential But, as youd expect, cliffs higher, of course, that they become attentive or we do * obsessively repetitious flurrying the grit, lifting the pebbles, flinging themBurdensome, underwritten overcast and glinting, obdurate * over-clever silicate of tough livesdistant and intricate constructing these webs of buildings distracted and/or light-headed except that these do not know it at least do not seem to with the blue airiness spinning around calling at random like frail relations * melancholic and/or meditative some trick of the light or weather will dress them as friends pleading and flailing and fill with placid but unbearable melodies.The exercise hardly provides revelation. Heteroglossia is an interweaving of voices, moreover, not shifts of tone or reference. And yet there is something very odd about the chess opening line. Why should we expect the buildings to be very impatient?This is more than the orators trick of attracting attention, since the animate nature of buildings and their constituents is referred to throughout the poem. To be more exact, the attitude of the inhabitants observers, bureaucrats, architects to the buildings is developed by the poem, and is paralleled by the tone. But why the confidential and repetitious attitude at the beginning.Why should we be buttonholed in this manner? Why the But, which seems to point to an earlier conversation, and the indispensability with which that earlier conversation is being refuted or covered up? Because the blame for something is being shifted to the buildings.What error has been committed we do not know, but in mitigation we are shown the effect of the buildings on other inhabitants. Or perhaps we are. In fact the whirring bureaucrats seem to grow out of the textile of buildings, and we do not really know if the we, constructing these webs of b uildings is meant literally or metaphorically. The poems title suggests literally, but perhaps these constructions are only of the mind sections 17, 20-29, 32 and 34 refer to attitudes rather than actions, and there is an gay or otherworldly atmosphere to the after section of the poem.So we return to heteroglossia, which is not simply borrowed voices, but involves an internal polemic, 12 that private dialogue we conduct between our private thoughts and their acceptable public expression. The dialogue is surely here between the bestial physicality of a nature made overpoweringly real and the fail brevity of human lives. That physicality is threatening and unnerving. If the we of the subsequent section of the poem is indeed architects then that physicality is harnessed to practical ends. If the constructing is purely mental then the treatment is through attitudes, mindsets, philosophies.But in neither fact does it emasculate the energy of the physical world. Architects may leave monuments behind them, but they are also imprisoned in those monuments (us in deep hinterlands) and hearing all the time the homesick voice of their constituents. Conclusions Suggested Improvements The greatest obstruction lies in the poems structure. An pentameter form has been used to give a superficial unity, but this wrenches the rhythm, obscures the sound patterns and does nothing for the argument. If recast in sections defined by rhythm and sound pattern the form is too irregular to have artistic autonomy.A return could be made to the eighteenth century Pindaric ode in strict metre and rhyme, but would require extensive and skilful rewriting, and probably appear artificial. A prose poem might be the wait on, but the rhythms would need to be more fluid and subtly syncopated. Otherwise, blank verse should be attempted, and the metre adjusted accordingly. The internal polemic is a valuable dimension of the poem, but more could be done to make the voices distinct. http//www. te xtetc. com/criticism/stylistics. html1. On StylisticsIs cognitive stylistics the future of stylistics?To answer this question in the essay that follows, I will briefly discuss Elena Semino and Jonathan Culpepers Cognitive Stylistics (2003), Paul Simpsons Stylistics (2004), and a recent essay by Michael bump off (2005). However, because questions are like trains one may hide another any discussion of the future of stylistics raises intractable questions about stylistics itself. French students of stylistics, for example, will come across definitions of the discipline like the following. According to Brigitte Buffard-Moret, si les definitions de la stylistique que certains refusent de considerer comme une scien