Cite this article as: Joseph, G. J., Abah, T. M., & Yadok, B. G. (2026). Enhancing the pedagogy of poetry analysis through the linguistic stylistic method. Sokoto Journal of Linguistics and Communication Studies (SOJOLICS), 2(2), 383-391. https://doi.org/10.36349/sojolics.2026.v02i02.035
By
Department of Language Arts and Communication,
Federal University of
Education, Pankshin, Plateau State
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8450-055X
07034887257
&
Thomas Micheal Abah
Federal University of Education, Pankshin, Plateau
State
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-6100-8102
&
Bizuum Godwill Yadok
Department of English,
Federal University of Education, Pankshin, Plateau
State
https://ORCID.org/0009-0004-3892-8020
Abstract
Poetry, the oldest form of creative verbal art, is
considered unique for its peculiar linguistic form and function. It is often considered
as the most challenging genre of literature due to its compact, condensed and
obscurant lexical content. This paper contends that the pedagogy of poetry
analysis can benefit from a linguistic stylistic method beyond traditional
literary criticism. To this end, this study deployed a linguistic stylistic
method to study the language of poetry as against the popular and traditional
approach of the literary critical method. This is with a view to demonstrating
how the linguistic stylistic method can be a viable and more systematic
analytical technique for the study of poetry, which can make the pedagogy of
poetry more clearly understood and fascinating to its practitioners. To match
theory with practice, the study adopted a qualitative approach to apply the
linguistic stylistic method to the study of the poem Africa by David Diop.
Analysis was carried out at the graphological, phonological, syntactic and
lexico-semantic levels of linguistic description. Findings revealed that
the linguistic stylistic method does indeed allow for systematic, empirical and
verifiable analysis of poetry in such a way that the contextual meaning and the
thematic preoccupation of the poem can be easily identified and understood. The
study concludes that the linguistic stylistic method is both a complementary
and an alternative method of studying poetry as it helps in easy comprehension
of poetry by unravelling the poetic content through the linguistic form.
Keywords: linguistic stylistics, literary criticism,
poetry, meaning, interpretation
1.0 Introduction
Poetry, like prose and drama, is traditionally
analysed, interpreted, and evaluated from the perspective of the literary
critical method (Burke, 2014; Crystal & Davy, 2016; Anyawu, 2020; Mustapha,
2024). Thus, the literary critical method, otherwise called literary criticism,
has been privileged as the primary method of literary studies (Ellis, 2015). As
an academic discipline, literary criticism is a field of study where various
genres of works of art are analysed, described and interpreted to evaluate the
message of the writer (Ogum, 2017). It is a discipline that seeks to formulate
aesthetic and methodological principles with which the critic can evaluate a
text (Bressler, 2003; Hashim, 2017). As a literary practice, it concentrates on
defining, classifying, analysing, evaluating, interpreting, and explaining
literary texts by applying relevant interpretative instruments called literary
theories (Short, 2016; Ojebode, 2024).
However, literary criticism has been criticised for
over-concentrating on authors and placing too much emphasis on the intuition of
the critic (Obadan, 2017). This approach does not make provision for the reader
to verify the validity or otherwise of intuitive judgment concerning a
particular literary text before co concluding (Abdulmughni, 2019). In view of
this, literary criticism is regarded as impressionistic in its approach (Hall,
2014). These perceived shortcomings, among others, have engendered the emergence
of the linguistic stylistic method as an alternative approach to the study of
literary works (Norgaard et al., 2010; Candria, 2019). In light of this, this
study explores the linguistic stylistics approach to studying poetry. The study
elucidates the concept of linguistic stylistics. It examines poetry as a genre
of literature and identifies features of the language of poetry. Particularly,
the study carries out a linguistic stylistic analysis of a poem to match theory
with practice, and the study concludes that knowledge of poetry analysis will
be enhanced by deploying a linguistic stylistic approach to the study of
poetry.
1.1 Literature Review
The language of poetry, as Greenbaum and Nelson (2009)
explicate, refers to the variety and features of language as used in poetry.
Dasylva and Jegede (2005) contend that what distinguishes poetry from other
forms of literature is its exploitation of the resources of language and music.
In this direction, MacMonagde (2001) argues that a good poem is a language that
has been carefully shaped and artistically presented. Corroborating this view,
Osundare (2003) claims that poetry, more than prose or drama, thrives on that
crafty economy of verbal resources. Hence, poetry is a literary form in which
language is peculiarly patterned for a beautiful effect and a coded expression
of the composer's feelings (Anderson, 2016). Greenbaum and Nelson (2009) also
add that poetry is distinctively visual; it often contains neologisms or nonce
words or unusual collocations; it thrives on the use of figures of speech; and
the patterning of parallelism is often used either in linguistic form,
structure, or meaning.
In addition, Margaret and Acheoah (2024) specify that
poetic language is allusive, concentrated, embellished, heightened, imagistic,
metaphorical, paradoxical, suggestive, symbolic and polyvalent. In view of
this, Adekoya (2012) emphasises that more than any other literary genre, poetry
accentuates the phonetic potentialities of language and utilises them to its
advantage in an endless game of word and image creation. With reference to
language as an image-making device in poetry, Munir (2022) believes poetry is a
powerful image-invoking art in which an image may be denotative/literal or
connotative/figurative. While in the former set, meaning can be fixed or
single, in the latter set, meaning can be associational, multiple, and elastic.
2.0 Conceptual Framework
Linguistic stylistics as a conceptual framework is
based on the discipline of general linguistics, which is the study of language
in a scientific manner (Syal & Jindal, 2010; Abaya &Kparevzua, 2024).
As a scientific discipline, linguistic stylistics thrives on identifying
linguistic features as proofs and evidence for its propositions or postulations
and conclusions in textual analysis (Lix & Shi, 2019). Linguistic
stylistics uses linguistic concepts and tools to study texts, whether literary
or non-literary and emphasises the need for a rigorous linguistic description
of a text before making an interpretation or drawing a conclusion (Hussain,
2015; Rana, 2018). In this direction, interpretation is explicit, specific,
objective and verifiable.
According to Obadan (2017), the term linguistic
stylistics was coined in 1968 by Donald Freeman to depict linguistic stylistics
as autonomous from literary criticism and, thereby, clarify the mistrust
between literary critics and linguists. Basically, the concept of linguistic
stylistics has to do with a stylistic study that relies heavily on the
scientific rules of language in its analysis. Halliday (1967) states that
linguistic stylistics is the description of literary texts by methods derived
from general linguistic theory, using the categories of the description of
language as a whole. In other words, linguistic stylistics uses models and
frameworks from various fields in linguistics as a form of studying the
language of literature. It is, therefore, a discipline that aims to account for
how linguistic choices influence a text's meaning and thematic concerns. It
seeks to account for the interpretative effects of a text through a close study
of its linguistic details, such as sound patterns, lexical form and function,
syntactic configuration, semantic features, and cohesive devices and
particularly how these linguistic resources influence meanings and the message
of a text (Chapman, 1973; Al-Aadili& Salman, 2019). It uses an explicit,
practical, and systematic method to study creative works to arrive at a
verifiable conclusion and objective (Simpson, 2014; Bade, 2016). Thus,
stylistics is an inquiry into how a text is made, why it
is made, and the contextual implications of a text(Rana, 2018).
For Leech and Short (2013), linguistic stylistics is
the study of the variety of language used in literary texts to relate textual
code to its artistic function. In other words, linguistic stylistics is an
exercise in describing what use is made of language in a literary text.
Tuurosong, Pelpuo and Bakuuro (2018) add that
linguistic stylistics entails the study of the language of literary texts in a
linguistically disciplined manner, with a view of relating it to its artistic
function. Thus, linguistic stylistics has the overall aim of studying how
stylistic devices are utilised to accomplish the communicative purpose of a
text and to identify the functional style that a text is representative of.
3.0 Methodology
This study adopted a descriptive qualitative approach.
The study purposively selected the poem "Africa”by David Diop
(1988). The poem would be analysed at the graphological, phonological,
syntactic and lexico-semantic levels of linguistic description. This is
with a view to demonstrating how the linguistic stylistic method can be an
easier and more systematic analytical technique for the study of poetry, which
can make the pedagogy of poetry more clearly understood and fascinating to its
practitioners.
4.0 Data Presentation
As pointed out earlier, the poem “Africa”, written by
David Diop,serves as the data for analysis in this study. Each line of the poem
is assigned a number chronologically. This is to allow for orderly reference in
the analysis. The poem is presented below:
1 Africa my Africa
2 Africa of proud warriors in ancestral
savannahs
3 Africa of whom my grandmother sings
4 On the banks of the distant river
5 I have never known you
6 But your blood flows in my veins
7 Your beautiful black blood that irrigates the
fields
8 The blood of your sweat
9 The sweat of your work
10 The work of your
slavery
11 The slavery of your
children
12 Africa tell me Africa
13 Is this your back
that is bent
14 This back that breaks
under the weight of humiliation
15 This back that
trembling with red scars
16 And saying yes to the
whip under the midday sun
17 But a grave voice
answers me
18 Impetuous child that
tree young and strong
19 That tree over there
20 Splendidly alone
amidst white and faded flowers
21 That is your Africa
springing up anew
22 Springing up
patiently obstinately
23 Whose fruits bit by
bit acquire
24 The bitter taste of liberty.
5.0
Data Analysis and Discussion of Findings
5.1
Graphological level of analysis
Graphically, the poem is displayed in 24 lines. Each
line is not punctuated except the last line. When a poem is written in this
manner, it is usually described as a free-verse style or a free-punctuation
style (Short, 2016).This free verse and free punctuation graphological design
are utilised to foreground the central theme of the poem, which is liberty. In
this regard, the poetic content is reflected in the graphological form of the
poem. It can, therefore, be suggested that the style of the poem is graphologically
designed to relate the content to the form.
5.2 Phonological level of analysis
Alliteration is used to create a specific sound effect
in the poem. Instances of this are highlighted below:
beautiful black blood
(line 7)
faded flowers
(line 20)
bit by bit
(line 23)
In line 7, ‘beautiful black blood’ is a
metaphor to humanise and adore the black people in Africa. In line 20, ‘faded
flower’ is a metaphor that depicts the waning influence of colonialism
in Africa, while ‘bit by bit’ in line 23 points to the gradual
emancipation of Africa from colonialism. The use of alliteration in these
instances enunciates sound aesthetics that draw attention to the metaphoric
signification of these expressions. In lines 7–11, rhythm is introduced into
the poem through the use of symbolic words such as blood, sweat, work, and
slavery. The lexical item ‘blood’ in line 7 appears as the first lexical
item in line 8. The lexical item ‘sweat’ as the last word in line 8
appears as the first lexical item in line 9. The word ‘work’ appears as
the last word in line 9 but also appears as the first word in line 10, while
the lexical item ‘slavery’, which appears as the last word in line
10, appears as the first word in line 11. All these lexical items, which are
monosyllabic, symbolise the unique precarious conditions of Africans under
colonial experience. This device intensifies the passion with which the poetic
persona depicts Africa as the entity he writes about.
5.3 Syntactic level of analysis
The syntactic texture of the poem is largely composed
of phrases and simple sentences. Of the 24 syntactic structures that constitute
the poem, 12 structures are noun phrases. These syntactic devices make the
thematic concern of the poem accessible and poignant. These are found in lines
1,2,4,8,9,10,11,18,19,20,22 and 24. There are also 11 simple declarative
sentences deployed in the poem. Like the use of phrases,the use of simple
sentences foregrounds the poet’s style to make his descriptions simple and unambiguous.
These simple declarative sentences are found in lines 3,5,6,7,12,14,15,16,17,21
and 23. The preponderant use of these simple declarative sentences underscores
the poet's use of the poem to assert his worldview and disposition about Africa
in a catchy and vivid manner. There is only one interrogative sentence in the
poem, and this is found in line 13. This interrogative sentence functions as a
rhetorical question to draw attention to the plight of Africans under
colonialism. This fine blend of varied syntactic structures is an artistic
device to make the poem dynamic and engaging, thereby preventing it from being
monotonous in its syntactic composition. Another syntactic feature of the poem
is syntactic parallelism. The use of syntactic parallelism attains stylistic
significance in the poem. This is found in lines 8 – 11, and highlighted in the
table below:
|
Definite article |
Noun |
Preposition |
Pronoun |
Noun |
|
the |
blood |
of |
your |
seat |
|
the |
sweat |
of |
your |
work |
|
the |
work |
of |
your |
slavery |
|
the |
slavery |
of |
your |
children |
Apart from the element of rhythm and meter that these
parallel structures enact in the poem, it also creates a balanced flow of ideas
in painting the pictures of oppression, subjugation and dehumanisation that
Africa suffered under European colonisation. Therefore, parallelism is employed
as a tool for emphasis in drawing attention to the cruelty of slavery and the
injustice of colonisation in Africa.
5.4 Lexico-semantic level of analysis
At the lexico-semantic level, the poet deployed
lexical choices that were descriptive and active in the poem. The identifiable
lexico-semantic features in the poem are lexical collocation, lexical
repetition and apostrophe. The pattern of lexical choice reveals the three eras
of African experience that the poem seeks to depict, and these eras correspond
to three themes found in the poem. The first era is the pre-colonial era, which
suggests the theme of an idealised Africa. The second era is that of colonialism
with the theme of oppression and the third is the envisioned independent
Africa, with the theme of liberty. The lexical choices that depict the
pre-colonial era and the theme of an idealised Africa are ‘proud warriors’,
‘ancestral savannahs’, ‘distant rivers’, ‘beautiful black
blood’, and ‘grandmother sings'. Those that portray
the oppressive colonial era are ‘blood’, ‘sweat’, ‘slavery’,
‘back that breaks’, ‘humiliation’, ‘trembling’, ‘red
scars’, ‘whipunder the midday sun’and ‘bitter taste’.
The lexical items that depict the envisioned post-colonial era of liberty are ‘springing
up a new’, ‘young and strong’, ‘splendidly’, ‘springing up
patiently’, ‘fruits’and ‘liberty’.
Obviously, these lexical choices are lexical
collocations. Lexical collocation is the use of two or more lexical items that
can co-occur together, having a semantic relationship and serving specific
communication functions (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014; Beare, 2019). The
poet largely used lexical collocation to build up the poem and express his
message. Other instances of lexical collocation include ‘ancestral savannahs’, ‘distant rivers’, ‘proud
warriors’, ‘midday sun ’, ‘faded flower’ and ‘bit by
bit’. The collocational items ‘ancestral savannahs’, ‘distant rivers’and
‘midday sun’point to the beautiful geographical environment of Africa.
Through these collocations, the poet portrays Africa as a continent that is
well endowed by nature. The term ‘proud warriors’is a
collocation that indicates the military prowess of the African people, and this
represents African people as brave and courageous.
Furthermore, ‘faded flower’,as a collocation, is
a metaphor for the unpopularity of colonial adventure in Africa, while ‘bit
by bit ’, as a collocation, emphasises the gradual liberation of
Africa from the shackles of foreign occupation. There is a lexical repetition
of the item ‘black’ in lines 13, 14 and 15. The item signifies the
agony, pain and humiliation of Africa at the hands of her oppressor. The
lexical repetition, therefore, serves as a rhetorical device to foreground the
severity and complexity of Africa’s suffering under colonialism.
It is important to note that the apostrophe is used as
the main rhetorical strategy to construct the poem. An apostrophe is a figure
of speech in which an absent person or entity is addressed as if present or
capable of hearing (Wales, 2014; Khadjieva&Jumambetova, 2020). In the poem,
the following expressions are apostrophes:
Africa
my Africa (line 1)
Africa
tell me Africa (line 12)
Is
this your back that is bent (line 13)
This
back that breaks under the weight of humiliation (line 14)
This
back trembling with red scars (line 15)
In line 1, the apostrophe is a strategy to celebrate
Africa and expresses a nostalgic feeling for Africa as the ancestral home of
the poet. Line 12 personifies Africa and enunciates romantic feelings for her.
In lines 13 – 15, the poetic persona identifies with and empathizes with Africa
as he paints pictures of the catalogue of woes in which Africa is entrapped. In
all, the lexico-semantic language of the poem is simple, straight-to-the-point,
apt, and image-evoking. This lexical exactitude allows for semantic
accessibility, which makes the poem easy to comprehend and the thematic
concerns easy to understand.
6.0 Conclusion
This paper has explicated the role of linguistic
stylistic methods in literary interpretation, especially in the literary genre
of poetry. The conceptual underpinning of linguistic stylistics as a field of
study in the discipline of general linguistics has been examined. The study
carried out a linguistic stylistic study of the popular poem Africa to
demonstrate how linguistic stylistics applies to poetry analysis. This has
demonstrated that the linguistic, stylistic approach is a viable alternative to
poetry analysis apart from the traditional approach of literary criticism.
Indeed, linguistic stylistics is concerned with how the author
utilises language resources to encode the thematic preoccupation of a text.
Hence, the analysis in this paper attests to the fact that the linguistic
stylistic method provides an organised and systematic illumination of poetry
analysis and interpretation. Therefore, it is hoped that what has been
demonstrated in this study will encourage the practitioners of literary
interpretation, especially poetry, to embrace the linguistic stylistic method
as a complementary approach to studying poetry aside from the traditional
literary critical method.
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