Stylistics is certainly a very useful tool in the hands of teachers for the teaching of literature. It is a particularly rewarding strategy especially in relation to the teaching of poetry. It helps us to make full use of the intra-textual, linguistic data for literary interpretation, thus cancelling the need to rely on subjective impressionism, and learned critical commentaries. A stylistic interpretation of William Blake's short poem 'The Sick Rose' would exemplify this. We can teach the students to make use of syntactic, grammatical, lexical and metrical clues for the purpose of literary interpretation.
Here is the text of the poem:
"The Sick Rose"
O Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
In the howling storm
Has found out thy bed
of crimson joy
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
Syntactically the poem 'The Sick Rose' is made up of two sentences only. The first one is an exclamatory sentence beginning with a vocative, 'O Rose' the second is a compound-complex sentence consisting of two co-ordinate clauses (The invisible worm...has found out thy bed of crimson joy and his dark secret love does thy life destroy). The NP in the first clause i.e. (the invisible worm) is modified by two relative clauses (...that flies in the night, that flies in the howling storm). Of these the second is a reduced relative clause. In the VP of the second co-ordinate clause the normal word order is inverted necessitating the use of emphatic 'do. We can make the students see for themselves that the other versions of the sentence i.e...destroys thy life "or'.. does thy life destroy" in which the verb is relegated to the end.
The two NPs 'the rose' and 'the worm' stand out in the poem. They are modified by the adjectives 'sick' and invisible poem. They are modified by the adjectives 'sick' and invisible!
The initial mention of the rose in the title and in the vocative marks it as a prominent NP. The second NP 'the invisible worm' is given prominence by the two qualifying relative clauses (that flies in the night, that flies in the howling storm). This discussion makes it clear that these are the two central images in the poem.
The initial exclamation is also a kind of spontaneous statement. The vocative heightens the spontaneity. The first clause of the compound-complex sentence specifies the agent (the invisible worm) and his action (found out thy bed). The second clause specifies the effect of his action (his dark secret love does thy life destroy). It is also significant that 'the rose' occurs in a simple structure whereas 'the worm' occurs in a relatively more complex structure indicating perhaps that there is something devious about it. The life-destroying activity is suggested by the inverted syntax. This is a kind of foregrounding which compels the attention of the reader.
The students can also be helped to realise by question and answer method that grammatically the poem is in the simple present tense (e.g. 'art', 'flies' 'does destroy') indicating the timeless, universal quality of the poctic experience presented here. The single use of the present perfect tense contrasts with the more frequent simple present and highlights the foregone coclusion (Has found out thy bed/Of crimson joy). The destructive action of the worm is given additional force by the use of emphatic 'do. Lexically 'the rose' and 'the worm' form a syntactic couple by appearing in equivalent positions i.e. after the determiner and adjective ('The sick rose', 'the invisible worm'). They are also semantically related because they represent contrasting qualities of beauty and ugliness. The rose also represents colourfulness, freshness, fragrance. It is associated with life, health, hope and comfort. The worm is a creeping creature and it is associated with disease and parasite-like qualities. The rose is attractive, the worm is repulsive. The worm normally lives under the ground, the rose always stands at some height above the ground. This should convince the students that "the rose' is a life-representing symbol, while 'the worm' is a life-denying symbol. We may further observe that the night and 'the storm' are semantically linked with 'the worm'. The night is associated with darkness, disease and death, the storm is associated with some kind of violence and disturbance. Thus 'the worm', 'the night' 'the storm' are semantic equivalents of each other. In the sixth line the two adjectives 'dark' and 'secret' indicate the sinister quality of the worm's love.
Another significant semantic feature is that both the rose and the worm are given human features in the context of the poem. Thus the rose
is sick and the worm is capable of love. Also it is replaced by the pronoun 'his'. However the human features of the worm are also retained. Thus it is capable of flying too. This semantic ambiguity highlights the inhuman nature of the worm. Compartively the rose is more human. The phrase 'crimson joy' is a deviation. 'Crimson' is unusual in conjunction with 'joy'. Joy is an abstract noun and it is not generally modified by colour adjectives. The word crimson also brings in the sexual connotation. The phrasal verb 'find out' may also have sexual connotation (like the archaic sense of 'know'). Thus there is something unsavoury in the association of the worm and the rose. The worm is an agent of infection and disease.
Metrically we notice that the second and fourth, the sixth and eight lines rhyme and the unstressed syllables seem, to dominate the poem. This can be linked to the focus on sickness in the poem. The predominance of unstressed syllables also adds to the rather sad, slow rhythm of the poem. Also the first and third lines and with/k/and/t/sound. these sounds carry the suggestions of abrupt stoppage of movement in the final position. The occurrence of these sounds in the poem here has the effect of brooding menace and it prognosticates the apprehension of something undesirable.
The information in the above paragraphs can be elicited from the students using questions and with the help of their own answers they can be helped to realise that the poem posits a basic contrast between the rose and the worm, the poetic equivalents of life/health and disease/death. In the context of Blake's period this contrast may also stand for the corrupting, evil influence of the Industrial Revolution on the
good, old agrarian England. Thus the students can see that a basic, universal idea has been transformed into a lyric of great intensity by compressing it into just two sentences. (Initially the students should be advised to write down the poem like a prose paragraph to get these two sentences).
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Great Explanation
ReplyDeleteThank you For easy explanation
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