Stylistics and Stylistic Analysis of a Modern Hindi Poem

Abstract

Language is the medium through which all literature finds its manifestation. It is therefore necessary to have a language-based perspective for the study of literature. Since one finds in literature not only the referential but the creative and aesthetic aspects of language use, it is necessary to show that with a global perspective linguistics, through its sub discipline ‘stylistics’, can explicate literary texts as well. Hence, the paper consists of two parts: the first presenting a brief picture of linguistics as a discipline with a global orientation that is capable of studying not only the structures but also the functions and uses of language, and the second consisting of a stylistic analysis of S. H. V. Agyeya ‘s modern poem cup-caap nadii (The silent river). The first part briefly delineates the form of stylistics needed for explicating poetic texts. The paper emphasizes that stylistics must be semiotic in orientation, be sensitive to the context of situations and be rooted in ‘fictiveness’. Hence the approach has been called ‘semiolinguistics’ in order to distinguish it from other linguistic approaches. At the heart of stylistic meaning lies the multi-tiered stylization process which is attempted to be captured by positing three separate, though integrated, levels of the ‘sentence symbols’, ‘symbols in art’ and the ‘art symbol’. The paper focuses mainly on the level of the sentence symbol, since this is where stylization takes place, and the other two levels are implicated in the conclusions. This functional model is used for the analysis of the Hindi poem cup-caap nadi. The stylistic analysis of cup-caap nadi at the level of ‘sentence symbol’ views the poem as a linguistic construct in terms of its phonological, lexical, syntactic and semantic/ pragmatic aspects. While the phonological level shows, through the irregularity of meter, a ‘prose rhythm’, the lexical level reveals the signification of continuous motion, and the contrasts in lexicon signify the poem’s focus on a mental ‘state’ rather than on any physical scene. At the syntactic level, the contrasting simple and complex structures of the poem signify respectively the steady and calm motion of external nature which by-passes or submerges all obstacles in verse paragraph A, and a continuous violent motion of an ‘internal’ river that cannot submerge or obliterate the ever standing obstacles of 'desires' and hence remains in a state of constant collision in verse paragraph B. The semantic/ pragmatic level reveals that the continuous motion and the memories and desires are a permanent feature of the poem 'I's personality along with his sense of helplessness.