Vol. 5 Issue 14 – Research Paper: ‘Language and Literature Interface: Recovery Aspects in Poetry’ by D. Murali Manohar

ELTWeekly Vol. 5 Issue#14 | April 22, 2013 | ISSN 0975-3036

This paper is written and submitted by Dr.D.Murali Manohar, Head and Associate Professor, Dept. of English, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad.

Introduction:

English language has a particular syntactic structure. If we follow Noam Chomsky who has theorized a fixed pattern of sentences in his book Syntactic Structures (1957) such as NP+VP which means Noun Phrase in the subject position and Verb Phrase in the predicate position. Anything that is beyond is considered as deviance.

Objective:

The objective of this paper is to see how the creative writers especially the poets deviate from the Standard English. The creative writers have their freedom to experiment with the language. They are not people who are to be told how to write sentences using grammar rules etc. They have poetic license especially the poets.

Scope:

The scope of this paper is to explore in a few poets but this is not exhaustive. It can be extended to other poets of New Literatures. In fact the experiment is more aggressive in the new Literatures.

Research Methodology:

The researcher has chosen a few poets to see how they deviate from the Standard English. Many poems have to be read to find the poems in which the poets writing and expressing their ideas, perception, imagery, thought etc. While doing so either consciously or unconsciously they have deviated from the Standard English. It was not easy to find such poems where the deviance existed. Some appeared deviant but later some of them were to be found all right. Such usage is accepted.

Argument:

In this paper, I am going to deal with recoverable aspects in poetry. The aspects are (a) subject (b) conjunction and (c) verb. These aspects are recoverable. They are assumed in poetry and deleted for technical purpose. I will deal with them in a specific order- such as subject as the first, conjunction as the second and verb as the third – in any sentence that one can see.

Let me give examples of ‘subject’ deletion.

1. The following lines are taken from the poem entitled “The Last Summer” written by Seamus Heaney.

Carries a stone in his pocket

An ash-plant under his arm.[i]

In the above lines Seamus Heaney has deleted the subject ‘he’. It can be recovered based on the pronoun ‘his’ in the phrase “in his pocket”. It is assumed that there is a subject ‘He”. The correct sentence will be:

He carries stone in his pocket

An ash-plant under his arm.

2. The following lines are taken from the poem from the poem entitled “The Last Summer” written by Seamus Heaney:

Moves out of the fog

On the lawn, pads up the terrace.[ii]

In the above lines Seamus Heaney has deleted the subject ‘He’. It can be recovered by adding the subject position as He/It/She. It is assumed that there is a subject ‘He’. The correct sentence will be:

He moves out of the fog

On the lawn, pads up the terrace.

3. The following lines are taken from the poem “Land” written by Seamus Heaney:

Cleaned out the drains, faced the hedges

and often got up at down

to walk the outlaying fields.[iii]

In the above lines Seamus Heaney had deleted the subject. The subject either can be ‘He’ or ‘She’ as the context does not tell us. However, subject either he or she ought to be thereto have a perfect sentence. The subject he/she is recoverable as drains is generally done by the male so it has to be ‘He’. It is assumed that there is a subject he/she in the sentence. The correct sentence will be:

He/She cleaned out the drains, faced the hedges

and often got up at down

to walk the outlaying fields.                       

4. The following lines are taken from the poem entitled “A Winter’s Tale” written by Seamus Heaney:

She was there first

And so appeared one hunter

But, making all comers guests,

She stirred as from a winter

Sleep. Smiled.[iv]

In the above lines in the second sentence, Seamus Heaney has deleted the subject, ‘she’. The subject is recoverable as the previous sentence refers to a female. Therefore, it has to be pronoun ‘she’. The correct sentence will be:

And so appeared one hunter

But, making all comers guests,

She stirred as from a winter

Sleep. She smiled.

5. The following lines are taken from the poem entitled “A Winter’s Tale” written by Seamus Heaney:

Uncradled her breasts.[v]

In the above sentence Seamus Heaney has deleted the subject ‘she’. The subject is recoverable based on the pronoun that has been used in the sentence. It is assumed that there is a subject ‘she’. The correct sentence will be:

She uncradled her breasts.

So far I have talked about the subject recovery in the sentences. Now I will turn to the attention with regard to deletion of conjunction.

6. The following lines are taken from the poem entitled “A Wind Flashes the Grass” written by Ted Hughes.

They too are afraid they too are momentary

stream rivers of shadow.[vi]

In the above lines Ted Hughes has deleted the conjunction ‘and’ between equal sentences. The function of the conjunction ‘and’ is to join two equal sentences/phrases/words. The conjunction ‘and ‘ can be recovered. It is assumed that there is a conjunction ‘and‘. The correct sentence will be:

They too are afraid they too are momentary

stream rivers of shadow.

7. The following lines are taken from the poem entitled “Field work” written by Seamus Heaney:

I was standing watching you

Lake the pad from the gate house at the crossing

And reach to lift a white ash off the whims. [vii]

In the above lines Seamus Heaney has deleted the conjunction ’and ‘between the two equal verbs. It can be recovered on the basis that the conjunction plays a role in maintaining balance between the same verbs. I t is assumed that there is conjunction ‘and’. The correct sentence will be:

I was standing and watching you

Lake the pad from the gate house at the crossing

And reach to lift a white ash off the whims.

8. The following lines are taken from the poem entitled “Triptych” written by Seamus Heaney.

She began to speak

‘I think our ery from is bound to change.

Dogs in a siege. [viii]

In the above lines, second sentence, Seamus Heaney has deleted the main verb ‘are’. The verb is ‘are’ because in the subject position we have plural noun. Hence we must have ‘are’ in the plural noun. Hence we must have ‘are’ in the verb position place. It is recoverable. It is assumed that there is a verb. It is assumed that there is a verb ‘are’. The correct sentence will be:

She began to speak

‘I think our very from is bound to change.

Dogs are in a siege.

9. The following lines are taken from the poem entitled “The Badgers” written by Seamus Heaney:

His sturdy dirty body

And interloping grovel.

The intelligence in his bone.[ix]

In the above lines, second sentence, Seamus Heaney has deleted the verb ‘is’. We have the subject and the object but no predicate. So the predicate has to be ‘is’ in the above second sentence. It can be recovered by the rule that a sentence ought to have a predicate. It is assumed that there is a verb ‘is’. The correct sentence will be:

His sturdy dirty body

And interloping grovel.

The intelligence is in his bone.

10. The following lies are taken from the poem entitled “Full Moon and Little Frieda” written by Ted Hughes:

A cool small evening shrunk to a dog bark and the clank of a bucket-

And you listening.[x]

In the above lines at “And you listening” Ted Hughes has deleted the verb “are”. It can be recovered based on the verb phrase rule that the continuous form can not occur with auxiliary verb such as be form “are”. It is assumed that there is a helping verb such as ‘are’. The correct sentence will be:

A cool small evening shrunk to a dog bark and the clank of a bucket-

And you are listening.

11. The following lines are taken from the poem entitled “Triptych” written by Seamus Heaney:

I see a stone house by a pier.

Elbow room. Broad window light.[xi]

In the above lines, second sentence, Seamus Heaney has deleted the subject, the verb and the conjunction. One sentence has been divided into two sentences with punctuation. When we look at the context one can see the second structure ought to have the subject ‘I’ the verb ‘see’ and the conjunction ‘and’ between two noun phrases. They are recoverable aspects. It is assumed that the subject ‘I’, the verb ‘see’ and the conjunction ‘and’ are there between the two equal noun phrases. The correct sentence will be:

I see a stone house by a pier.

I see elbow room and broad window light.

I think the above example in a way summarizes the three recoverable aspects that I have chosen in poetry. The deviances can be captured.

Conclusion:

To conclude, poets such as Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes have deleted aspects which can be recovered. The generalization of the above examples is to show how the poets delete certain aspects such as (a) subject (b) Conjunction and (c) verb for their technical purposes.