文体学e.e.cummings诗歌分析

湖南大学外国语与国际教育学院

英语四班

马思佳

2

Analysis on (E. ec) um! Mi, n, g-s' poem:

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r

r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r

Who

a ) s w (e loo)k

Upnowgath

PPEGORHRASS

eringint( o-

aThe:) l

eA

!

p:

s

a

to

aThe):l

eA

!p:

S

a

(r

rIvInG

gRrEaPsPhOs

to

rea(be)rran(com)gi(e)ngly

,grasshopper;

A possible translation:

A grasshopper who we

look up now gathering

a GRASSHOPPER into leaps:

arriving grasshopper

rearrangingly

become

a grasshopper

la

湖南大学外国语与国际教育学院

英语四班

马思佳

2

Introduction

E.

E.

Cummings,

born

in

1894,

was

an

American

poet,

painter,

essayist,

author,

and

playwright.

His body of work encompasses approximately 2,900 poems, two autobiographical

novels,

four

plays

and

several

essays,

as

well

as

numerous

drawings

and

paintings.

He

is

remembered as a preeminent voice of 20th century poetry, as well as one of the most popular.

He

loved

cubism

and

futurism

in

painting,

while

all

the

achievements

he

made

in

other

areas can hardly be compared with what he did in poetry

.

In

general,

his poems can be classified

into 3 categories: Blues Poetry

, which just

like the

Blues

music,

utilizes

lyric,

rhythm

and

rhyme,

and

shares

some

similar

themes

such

as

lost

love;

concrete

poetry

,

in

which

typographical

arrangement

of

the

words

is

important

in

conveying the effect and elements of

the poem;

futurist,

which believes

that

the constraints of

syntax were inappropriate to modern life and that it did not truly represent the mind of the poet.

Syntax

would

serve as a

filter

in which analogies

had

to be processed and so analogies

would

lose their characteristic

In

his poetry

,

meter

was

rejected and the

word

was the

top concern. In

this

way

,

he was able to create a

now

language

free of syntax punctuation and

full of free expression.

Attached

to

his

free

and

creative

way

of

relating,

I

would

like

to

give

a

brief

stylistic

analysis

of

his

famous

poem:

The

examination

will

deal

with

phonological, graphological, lexical, syntactical, and semantic analyses respectively

.

Graphological Features

1)

Punctuation

E.E. Cummings had a constant love for punctuation, especially in a random way

. Hyphens

are

used

to

link

the

randomly

spelled

letters

，

which

creates

an

impression

of

coh erence

；

brackets

are

used to

limit

the

letters

into a

certain space, such as (e

loo),

in order

to create an

effect of closure

which coperate with

the phrase of

into

Exclamatory

marks are

used to

湖南大学外国语与国际教育学院

英语四班

马思佳

2

create

an

effect

of

bouncing,

which

characterizes

the

motions

of

the

grasshopper.

Colons

are

also

used

to

attract

readers'

attention.

The

punctuation

takes

up

an

organic

part

of

the

Cummings's

poems

；

however,

it

consists

only

an

auxiliary

part

some

other

poems.

It

seems

clear

that

from

the

perspective

of

modernism,

every

part

of

the

poem

can

contribute

to

the

wholeness of

its poetic effect. Punctuations are endowed with a sense of

freshness and novelty

in cummings' poetry

.

2)

Capitalization

Capitalization

as

well

as

decapitalization

is

a

device

frequently

applied

in

Cumming's

poetry

.

The

basic

function

of

these

devices

is

to

emphasis.

Take

his

name

for

example,

he

usually

spelled

his

name

as

gs

to

illustrate

his

own

self- identification

that

he

was

nothing

more

important or distinguished

than others

and

in addition,

he wanted

himself to be

modest.

In

this

poem,

there

are

two

outstanding

capitalizations

which

catch

my

eyes:

PPEGORHRASS

and

gRrEaPsPhOs.

These

two

achieve

the

effect

of

foregrounding.

Seen

from

a

distance,

these

two

words

can

call

readers'

attention

more

easily

and

successfully.

PPEGORHRASS,

through

proper

arrangement,

can

form

the

word

The

first

grasshopper

in this poem

is decapitalized and

is

linked by

hyphens so that create a picture of a

grasshopper

crawls

or

stays

with

no

apparent

motions,

while

by

highlighting

the

word

PPEGORHRASS,

the picture suddenly become dynamic, and the

grasshopper all of a sudden

become active, which arouses the interest of the readers and adds vitality into the poem.

Another

example

is

gRrEaPsPhOs.

As

we can see,

the second

half of the poem takes the

shape

of

a

grasshopper(

I

will

cover

this

point

shortly

afterwards.),

and

through

the

picture

I

gave

above,

this

word

gRrEaPsPhOs

is

exactly

the

abdomen

of

this

insect.

Judging

from

our

common

sense,

we know

what

external

form

it

is. And arrangement of

the

letters

in

this way

can just depict the abdomen of an insect with stripes.

Here,

we can see

that

through

the devices of capitalization and decapitalization,

the poet

can achieve a far- reaching denotative meaning as well as a picturesque effect.

3)

Paragraphing

By

paragraphing,

we

mean

the

way

in

which

a

text

is

divided

into

paragraphs.

And

this

湖南大学外国语与国际教育学院

英语四班

马思佳

2

poem is divided into two halves. The first half is in words and in the second half, the shape of a

grasshopper

is

composed.

The

result

is

that

when

we

read

this

poem,

we

are

welcomed

by

a

short

introduction and a

grasshopper at the bottom of

the poem. The way he divided this poem

is quite creative and imaginative. It makes a breakthrough in the traditional form of poetry and

set

foot

in

combining

poems

with

pictures,

or

composing

pictures

in

letters.

It

challenges

people's common understanding of poetry and provides a broader view of modernism.

4)

Graphic signs

Graphic

signs

are

frequently

used

in

cummings'

poems,

for

this

part

is

an

indispensable

component

in

his

expression

of

his

thoughts.

This

poem

is

a

visual

poem.

The

shape

of

his

poem

can

also

convey

certain

meaning,

for

example,

this

poem

is

arranged

in

the

shape

of

a

grasshopper; another poem of

his took the shape of a cat. The graphic sign

indicates the theme

of

his

poem

and

also

becomes

a

trick

to

the

readers'

eyes

and

creates

a

different

and

imaginative way of composing as well as reading a poem.

Another

trick played by cummings

is enjambment,

in which the

words

jump

from

line to

line

randomly

and

wait

for

the

reader

to

rearrange

them.

In

this

poem,

this

feature

is

quite

obvious. This poem is said to create a figure of an erratic grasshopper and jumping is involved

in

its

nature. Our eyes

move

from side

to side to catch the trace of the

grasshopper, otherwise,

we run the risk of losing ourselves in the poem.

In addition to enjambment, the poems

leave

much room

for

margins. The bouncing of the

letters in the first paragraph creates large chunk of margin in the middle of the poem. Instead of

calling

for

pausing

or

introspective

as

the

margins

in

other

literature

works,

this

chunk

of

margin

is

not provided

for the rest of the eyes but

for exercises. By constantly

moving the eye

from side to side can he understands the poem and also gets a sense of the dynamic movement

of

the

insect

as

if

there

were

a

grasshopper

on

the

paper,

before

the

eye.

This

is

one

of

the

major

fun

or

power

of

gs'

poetry

.

He

successfully

combines

visual

effect

with

written forms.

5)

Spelling

Misspelling

is

another

device

enjoys

cumming's

favor.

In

each

line

of

his

poem,

one

should not take its spelling into serious consideration, but to read it out loud as a whole and not