ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the author begins with a philosophical positioning, and elucidates his viewpoint through a close stylistic reading of a poem by Robert Lowell. As the argument develops, it moves away from the sorts of features that any language-aware reader might notice explicitly, towards a more systematic analysis typical of the stylistician. Conventional — prevailing — linguistics and criticism, then, have both miscast the relations between the individual and the community: linguistics assumes that meanings and interpretations are shared, or shareable, just as words are; and professional criticism. At the level of syntax what appears prominent is the frequency of short declarative clauses, which often seem conjoined rather abruptly. The absence of conventional cohesion – even at the lexical level – is one source of the strong impression of brokenness, disjointedness, absence of ordinary thematic unity. Instead, there seems to be a restless flitting, disorderedly, from topic to topic as the stanzas pass.