The Analysis of the Poem Arms and the Boy

zwwx@overseaen.comISSN 1009- -5039htp://www.overseaen.comOversoas Engish團團圓潿Tel:+86- -551- 5690811 5690812The Analysis of the Poem Arms and the Boy邓新梅(巢湖学院大学外语教学部,安徽巢湖238000)Abstract: Using the method。of detailed analysis of the foregrounding feaure of the poem: voice, thythm and thetoric. The theme of the poem is "the tagedy of war",demonstrating by onomatopoeia, aliteration, and other thymes in the form element combination and the use of personifcation.Key words: foregrounding; rhythm; personifcation中图分类号:1106文献标识码:A文章编号:1009- 5039(2011)07 -0220-02Trditionally the definition of poetry takes Bound as its keyThe function of poetic language consists in the maximum ofdistinctive textual feature. Poetry is regarded as one of the fewtextual forms that live on deliberate manipulation of sound orautormatization, that is, the deautomatization of an act; the more itsound patteming for stylistics efects. Most of the poems are writ-is foregrounded the more cormpletely conscious does it become.ten to be read aloud, and the acoustic efet is part of the appre-Objectively speaking, automatization schematizes an event; fore-ciative process of interpretation. The analyses begin with thegrounding means the violation of the secheme. The standard lan-sound patteming. According to professor Qu'B book, sound pat-guage in its purest of form avoids foregrounding. For example, ateming, i.e. rhythm and rhyme in poetry is not simply decorativenew expression, which foregrounds because of its newness, is im-if we asume meanings may get involved in the practice. It hasmediately automatized in a scientifie treatise by an exact defini-functions. One of the established funetions for sound pattemingtion of its meaning, Foregrounding is of course, common in theso far is genre -signaling: they signal a kind of discourse thatstandard language, eg, in jourmalitic style, even in essays. Butconstructs reality in a way essentially different from other discur-here it is always subordinate to communication; its purpose is tosive types. In other worde, the reality created in poetry calls forattract the reader's atention more closely to the subject matterinterpretive procedures that are unique for poetry.expressed by the foregrounded by the foregrounded means of ex-Research in cognitive linguistics suggests that our interpre-pression. In poetic language foregrounding achieves maximumtive process is subject to many constraining factors, one of whichintensity to the extent of pushing communication into the back-is one about the typology of texts. Different types of texts haveground as the objective of expresion and of being used for itsdifferent textual conventions goverming their production and theirown sake; it is not used in the services of communication; but ininterpretation. Ron Carter identifies the genre -signaling functionorder to place in the foreground the act of expression for aesthet:昭the contribution of sound to the organization of a text:ic purposes.But sounds in verse: or the gounds implied by the verseIn the poem Arms and the Boy, the author, Owen, used a lottext- -have a more than musical value. While they decorate theof plosive sounds, such s /b/Jk/,Jv.Thee plosive sounds canpoem, they have also help to organize it, acting as more or lessmake us profoundly affected by the war. For example, in the firstemphatic markers of the phrase, the line, the stanza. (1990:120)two lines of the poem, the stop sound Mb/ appears repeatedly forNow I do analyses about the poem Arms and the Boy.four times in the words boy,bayonet-blade and blood. Such stopArms and the Boysounds are just like the ice-cold bayonet and make uB to imagineLet the boy try along this bayonet-blade,the brutal scenes of war. And in the first line of pat two, the po-How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood;et selected three words: blind,blunt and bullet, which pronounceBlue with all malice, like a madman's flash;the plosive sound /b/J.The plosive sounds read like the blindAnd thinly drawn with famishing for flesh.bullets that may explode around us. The foregrounding of suchplosives adde tbe strong impression to the readers on the cruel-Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-heads,ness of the war.Which long to nuzle in the hearts of lads,And the consonants I1JI/3Ja/ are also the foregroundingOr give him cartridges whose fine zine teeth,sounds. In the forth line of the first part, three words: famishingAre sharp with sharpness of grief and death.for Alesh, are beginning with the Bound /E/.In the forth line of theFor his teeth seem for laughing round an applesecond part, the words: sharp,sharpnee,death, stress the sounds 1There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple;J1J3Jal. Such pronunciations implicate a kind of unnatural hear.And God will grow no talons at his heels,ing experience whiten pill easily make the reader feel jaring andNor antlers through the thickne8s of his curls.experience the poets detestne8s of the cruel war.中国煤化工MYHCNMH G收稿日期:2011-03-21修回日期:2011-04-20作者简介:邓新梅(1980-),女,安徽巢湖人,巢湖学院大学外语教学部助教,项士,从事语用学及应用语言学研究。220■中外文美文化研见断迎a栳目责任编舞:褚菲莽2011年7月.Overseas English 海外美诲Sound patterms in terms of rthyme scheme are relatively'nizable lexicosemantic units or relations because it is believedstraightforward and the decision on rhyming usually depends onthat the way words concatenate may disclose the meaning of ahard evidence. This relative objectivity finds expression in Mon-text. Semantic grouping may be a bit controversial since readerstegomery et al's definition of the term: .may recognize the semantic relation differently but this shouldSound patterme are forned when there is some forms of e-not wonry us because the key point is to find a order so thatcho' between syllables in words that occur close 10 one another inwords may cluster under a node. It does not matter if there arespace or time (e.g. next to each other, or in the same line, or inmore nodes because the multiplicity can be resolved eventually:the same place in different lines) (1992: 84)boy bayonet blade steel hunger blood malice madman flashWales defines "rhyme" 8s "phonetic echo" or "phonemicflesh bullet -heads heart lad teeth sharpness grief death applematching." (2002: 346) Therefore rhyming is more physical,claw finger talon heel antler thickness curlfounded on clear material evidence. Specifically, we can sayReading these nouns, we can feel that most of the nounrhyme generally refers to two words having the same final vowelswords in the poem are cold. Bayonet,bullet,and cartridges are theand/or consonant sounds.weapons of the war. Boy is the representation of the whole humanCuddon lists three main functions for the rhyme scheme:beings. Here we can fell the strong contrast between the two .acsthetic, structural and the mnemonic. What he means is thatfields. One is na?ve and innocent but the other is cruel andrhymes aesthetically create a melody and a rhythm that arisegloomy. At the very beginning when God mad man, there are nofrom the phonetic echoing, both of which, in turm, add coherenceclaws at the top of the fingers, no talons on the toes, and noto the poetic structure. A rhymed test is generally believed easyantlers on the top of the head. But the war made people animal-to be memorized.ized. Human beings manufacture weapons and use them to killhuman beings. Human beings are the users of weapons and alsoof rhymes that contrasted the scenario and atmosphere of thethe victims of it. Although people have no clawe, talons orbattlefield. Pararhyme, also called frame rhyme, is composed byantlers, the steel sword and bullets are like the claws and antlers.the same consonants at the beginning and end parts of a syllableIts cruelty is not inferior to monsters.but different vowels in the middle. For example, hll,illThe apple signifes the fruit of wisdom in the Garden of E-word,spoiedspilled and so on. In the first part of the poem, theden and represents the rationality and knowledge of human be-words: blade/blood, flash/flesh, are parathymes. In adition toings. But the war made people confuse right and wrong, good andstressing the musical effect, the rhyming of poetry is also a keyevil.point to expre8s the meaning of the poem. This kind of rhymeThe poet revealed the brutal and cruel of the war andgives readers a sense of gravity. Just like the young boys whoshowed the insignificance and the helplessness of human beingswent to the battlefield in response to the call of fighting for ourin the war. The theme of the poem is to express the "sadness ofcountry ended in the shock of their souls and disillusion of theirwar". What the poem expressed was not the poet's personal ex-perience and feeling. He wants the readers to do reflection aboutThe consensus in general semantics is that words in a textthe war from all aspects.are semantically related, which scems to be a trivial and self-evi-References:dent statement. F.R.Palmer states "Its unifying theme is the idea[1]曲卫国.话语文体学导论:文本分析方法[M].上海:复旦大学that we can state the meaning of words in terms of their associa-出版社,2009.tion with other words."(1981:67) But semanticist see the notion ”[2]胡壮嶙,姜望琪.语言学高级教程[M]北京:北京大学出版社,semantic relatedness" (Lyons, 1977: 553) quite differently among2002.themselves. Various hypothesesconcerming semantic relatednesshave been formulated. 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