Language of Poetry (Pseudo-statement,
Irony, Paradox, Ambiguity)
T.S. Eliot said that ‘the poet has not a
personality to express, but a particular medium..’ The poet’s medium is
language. All the critics agree that poets use language differently from those
who write simply to convey factual information.
Different
poets expressed different views about the uses of language. For Sidney, the
content and language were equally important. For Wordsworth the state of the
poet’s mind was more important than his way of handling words. Pope saw the
poet as a man primarily haunted by words. But the poetry is not merely a game
of words. W.H. Auden describes two theories
Poetry
is a magical means for inducing desirable emotions and repelling undesirable
emotions.
Poetry
is a game of knowledge a bringing to consciousness by naming them, of emotions
and their hidden relationships.
(1) Pseudo statement:-
From
Plato to modern age, the debate of poetic language continues. Various critics
and various poets express different attitudes. I.A. Richards has expressed
elaborate views on poetry in his essay ‘science and poetry’. In the end of this
essay he discusses about scientific truth and poetic truth. He says that there
is difference between scientific truth and poetic truth. A scientist makes
‘true statements’ while a poet makes ‘Pseudo statement.
I.A. Richard emphasizes ‘the
fundamental difference and opposition between ‘pseudo statement’ as they occur
in poetry as ‘statement’ as they occur in science. The aim of a scientist is to
point out to some fact. His statements are true in a technical sense. The aim
of the poet is to evoke an emotion or attitude of mind.
“A pseudo statement is true if it
suits and serves some attitude or links together attitudes which on other
grounds are desirable”. A pseudo statement is a form of words which is
justified entirely by its effect in releasing or organizing our impulses and
attitude… a statement on the other hand is justified by its truth, i.e. its
correspondence in a highly technical sense with the fact to which it points.
(2) Irony:-
Some
modern critics emphasize the special kind of paradox and double in a poem. For
them ironical over tones and paradoxical implications are fundamental to
adequate poetic utterance. Robert Penn Warren Said ‘A poem to be good, must
earn itself.’ According to him thee poem must not state its author’s emotional
convictions easily. It must come to terms with all alternatives that threaten
those convictions by including them in the poetic statement.
“Poetry does not inhere in any
particular element but depends upon the set of relationships the structure,
which we call poem.”
Whatever is available in human
experience can be found in poetry. This does not mean than anything can be used
in any poem. It does mean that any sort of material might appear functionally
in a poem. The greatness of a poet depends upon the experience which he can
master poetically.
We can not make generalizations about
the nature of the poetic structure. There is the tension between the rhythm of
the poem and the rhythm of speech, between the formality of the rhythm and the
informality of language, between the particular and the general, between ideas,
between the elements involved in irony. This list is suggestive. The poet wins
by utilizing the materials of the poem.
The poets have tried to prove what
this material mean. The poet proves his vision by irony and structure. The poet
indicates that his vision has been earned. This vision can survive reference to
the complexities and contradictions of experience. And irony is one such device
of reference.
A good and well organized poem sets up
a complex of meaning in which the poet wins by the use of irony and paradox. It
can be understood by very simple example. If the poet can laugh at himself. At
the same time as he is being seriously passionate in love poem, he supposes the
possible laugher of others and insures himself against parody. Thus a good poet
disarm his opponents by anticipating their parody and mockery. His weapon for
this are irony and paradox.
(3) Poetry and Paradox:-
In
lyrical poetry, ironic tensions can be found in the treatment of rhythm and
imagery. But is can be found in all imaginative literature. The device of
tension may be in the structure of a novel or play as well as in a poem. The device
of tension may be in the recurrent images or adjective with which a character
is described. It is more important in a poem as it constitute the
differentiating qualities of a good poem. The arguments regarding this is put forward
by Cleanth Brooks in his book ‘The Well Wrought Urn’.
He says that language of poetry is not
the language of paradox. Paradox is the language of sophistry hard, bright, and
witty. It is not the language of soul. We may permit it in epigram and in
satire. Paradox is intellectual rather than emotional. Yet in a sense paradox
is inevitable in poetry. The language of scientist may be without paradox but
the truth of a poet can be approached only in terms of paradox. Wordsworth
likes simplicity in his poetry and yet his poems used paradox. Wordsworth is
able to give the charm of novelty to things of every day life and thus shows
how even the prosaic can be poetic.
“It is s beauteous evening, calm
and free,
The holy time is quite as a Nun
Breathless with adoration.
Coleridge
also has the romantic preoccupation with wonder, putting the familiar world in
a new light. Neo classical poets use paradox for much the same reason. See
pope’s from ‘The Essay on Man’
“In doubt his mind or Body to
prefer;
Born but to die and reas’ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much.
Paradox
comes from the very nature of the poet’s language. It is a language in which connotations
plays as a great part as the denotations. T.S. Eliot says,
“That perpetual slight alteration
of language,
words
perpetually juxtaposed in new and sudden combinations.”
According to
him, this occurs in poetry. It is perpetual. It can not be kept out of the
poetry.
The
poet works by analogy. Metaphors are necessary to express to express subtler
emotions. Even the most direct and simple poet is forced into paradoxes. This
is because of the nature of his instrument. There is difference between poetic
and scientific discourse. Science says things explicitly directly simply.
Poetry expresses itself paradoxically ironically, indirectly, obliquely in language.
It creates its own meaning as it moves. Poetry thus is a special way of using
language. It presents attitudes which could not be developed by any other for
of discourse.
(4) Ambiguity:-
When
there is doubt meaning it is known as ambiguity. In other words, ambiguity
takes place when a word or statement has more than one meaning. Often in a
situation or in a statement or in a word; meaning is not clear. There can be
more than one meaning this is ambiguity.
‘Ambiguity’ is related with modern
analytical criticism. Modern critic is concerned with the use of language irony
and paradox etc. There are the special qualities of poetic discourse. A modern
analytic critic describes the work with minute accuracy. His concern is to see
that the reader reads the work properly.
One of the pioneers of analytic
criticism is William Empson. He developed Richard’s concern with meaning into a
descriptive technique. His work ‘Seven Types of Ambiguity explores different
levels of meaning. He classifies ambiguities as following.
In
first type ambiguity the sorts of meaning is to be considered; the problems of
pure sound and of Atmosphere. First type ambiguity arises when a detail is
effective in several ways at once. e.g. by comparisons wit several points of
likeness, antitheses with several point of difference, Comparative adjectives,
subdired metaphors and extra meaning suggested by rhythm.
In
second the type ambiguity two or more alternative meanings are fully resolved
into one. E.g. double grammar in Shakespeare sonnets, ambiguities in Chaucer
the 18th century works; T.S. Eliot etc. are example of such.
The
condition for third type ambiguity is that two apparently unconnected meaning
are given simultaneously. There are puns from Milton, Marvell, Johnson, Pope,
Herbert, Nash etc.
In
the fourth type, the alternative meaning combine to make clear a complicated
stated of mind in the author. E.g.
§
You to your beauteous blessing add a curse
Being
fond on praise, which makes your praise worse. (Shakespeare)
The
fifth type is a fortunate confusion, as when the author is discovering his idea
in the act of writing or not holding it all in mind at once. Later metaphysical
poets were approaching 19th century technique by this route. For
example there is a simile which applies to nothing exactly, but lies half way
between two things when the author is moving from one to the other. Shakespeare
does it frequently. E.g. (Measure for measure)
§
“Our Nature do purse
Like
Rats that ravyn down their proper Bane.
A
thirsty evil and when we drink we die.
In
the sixth type what is said is contradictory or irrelevant and the reader is
forced to invent interpretations. According to the Authorized version, Moses
told the Lord that
§
‘Thou hast not delivered thy people at all
but
Delivering
thou hast not delivered.
The
seventh type is that full of contradictions marking a division in the author’s
mind. It is most ambiguous.
§
“Come what come May
Time and the hoarse
runs through the roughest day”. – Macbeth
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