ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the foundations to a linguistic analysis of a literary text by focusing on the syntax of a poem, arguing that such features of language organisation often go unnoticed or uncommented on in traditional literary analyses. Modern methods of linguistic: analysis, based on more comprehensive and detailed theories of language, can at least tackle the problem of describing literature. In this paper the accent will be on grammar; there is little to say about the vocabulary of such a short text when the peoples have no proper description of English vocabulary patterns to use as a basis. The grammar has led us briefly into lexical and contextual matters, but only sporadically. There is still a great deal unsaid about the structure of this little poem, and even what has been said suffers by being in the nature of commentary. Grammar deals with contrasts, multiple choices from a great many systems simultaneously.
