INTRODUCTION - Shodhganga : a reservoir of Indian …shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/.../190/11/06_introduction.pdfDefending the language of the Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth wrote

INTRODUCTION

POETRY AND POETIC LANGUAGE.

(POETIC LANGUAGE SEEN AS A CLASS WITHIN THE WIDE FRAME WORK

OF LINGUISTIC REGISTERS AND ITS GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS)

" Idamandam tama: kfitsnam jaayeeta bhuvanatrayam

Yadi dabdaahwayam jyootiraa samsaaram na diipyate"

[ It is the word that enlightens the whole world. But for the

word, all the three worlds would have been in total darkness ]

Dandin 1

In a letter to Richard West in April 1742. Thomas Gray wrote

thua:

"The language of the age is never the language of

2 poetry"

Well after another century .ie, on August 14, 1879 , Gerard

Manly Hopkina wrote to'Robert Bridges :

"Poetic language should be the current language

heightened and unlike itself, but not an obsolete onem3

Defending the language of the Lyrical Ballads, William

Wordsworth wrote in the Preface :

"The principal object, then, proposed in these

poems was to choose incidents and eituations from

common life and to relate or describe them, throughout,

Dandin, Kaavyaadarsam. 1 : 4.

As quoted in Geoffrey N. Leech , A_ Linguistic Guide to

English Poetry. London : Longman. 1969) 8.

Leech, p. 8.

Page 2

as far as was puusible in a selection of language

really uaed by men . . . , 4

No sooner does one enter into the precincts of the poetic

langut,e than one realises that one has been caught up in a

labryr'thlne world. It may seem to be a forlorn hope when

the '!ngul#t trlre to aatiert that he, of all specialists, is

best qualified to ahow a way out and reveal t!.e quintessence of

the language of poetry. Yet it cannot be overlooked that the

study of the verbal art le intimately connected wlt11, and must

be based on the study of the language under the linguist's

discipline.

Curtis W. Hayea speaks of a kind of tension that prevails in

the relationship between critic, and llnguiats and states

that both critics and linguists can contribute a great deal to

literary analysis and criticism. 5

a William 'Wordsworth, "Preface to lyrical Ballads", D. J.

Enright and Ernst De Chikera (ed).English Critical Texts.

(London : Oxford University Press. 1962 ) 164 . Curtis W. Hayes, "Linpuiatics." Archibald A . Rill (ed).

Essays on Linguistics and Literature. ( Voice of America

Forum Lectures, 1968) 197.

"Some literary critics have been disturbed by tho application of recent llnpuistic technics to the study of literature, and it is true that since linguists appear to have believed that the age old problems of literary crlticiem could be solved in a aummary fashion by the application of these methods. It is clear today, however, that the apparent conflict between the critic and the linguist is almost always the result of a misunderstanding . . . . "

Page 3

Despite ttia enormous ef forte of botr~ critics. and linguiats.

the question. of poetic language atll? continues as ~ v a e i v e or

fl!~:~lve as a mLrage in a wi22erneas.

h poet in the procese of transporting or elevating the

reaC;ra to a different plane of experience .may certainly have to

uee a epeclal klnd 06 I~nguage. He may have to take his readere

beyond the dictionary ~ e a n i n g of worda.

The followln~ Sanskrit sloka or verse e p a ~ k a of the benefits

o t poetry :

"Dharma artha kaama mokgefu

Valcakganyan kalaaeuca

Ka doti prlitlm klirtlm ca

Saadhu kaavya niqeevave". 6

[ Poets get waalth, love, mokea or salvation and every

other thing. if he la able to write good poetry. ]

He can never scale such heights with the use of everyday

language.

POETIC LANGUAGE A S A_ LINGUISTIC REGISTER.

Segistsr is "Language according to use" wbtch complements

dialect which is "Laqguage according to ueer."7. And as

argued Qy Raymond Chapman, w+$q a ueer directe his performance

towards a particular style, he le adopting a reglater.

Shamahan ! Kaavyaalamkaaram. 1 : 2.

I¶. A. # Halliday, A. EcIntoah and P. Stevens. The

Linguistic Sciences & Laneuaee Teaching ( London :

Legpman, 1964 ) . 87.

adds

"The common adoption of a register by a number of

people in a certain recurring slruation creates a

utylew8

I a it possible then to ir~clcc* Poetic language under the

wide spactrcs of linyuistlc reyisters ? There 1s no reason why it

should slot be. Geoffrey N. Leech. Raymond Chapman, Edward

Stan Lewics and numerous o;bera have written much ~n this issue.

Poetic Laz~guage forms a claas in itself. This leads to

another qt.*ation. Does this speclally devised language follow the

e61t&~!'ahed rulen of the language 7

" The Great Poet", as suagested by Stanki~wics ,

"is the man who possesses an intuitive mastery of the

rules that are obliyatory within hie own poetic

tradition and lanquaae . . . . However, poetic works are

unthinkabla outside the rules of the language and of a

given tradition. " 9

Leech speaks of a certain freedom on the part of the poets

to violate the llngulstlc rules, if neceesary :

"Poetfc language may violate or deviate from the

a Raymond Chapman, Lirruuldtics and Literature L An

Intsoduction to Literary Stylistice (London :Edward

Arnold, 1973) 9 - 19.

Edward Stankiewics. **Linauletica and the Study of Poetic

Language", Thomas A. Sebeok (ed), Style in Language

<New York : The Technology Press of nassachusette

lnetltute of Technology ,1960) 81.

Page 5

generaliy observed rules of the language in many ways,

nome obvious, some subtle". I 11

But Stankiewrcs questions this kind of a special privilege

allowed to poets. 3e statea :

iuet!c language need not violate any rules of the

language and still remains what it is, that is, a

hl,qhly vattrt . ,e i+ and ~rganised mode of verbal

expression. . . Poetic language takes full cognizance

of the rules of the l!ngulstic systems, and i f it

aJn11ts "devlatlons", they themselves are condltloned by

the language or by the given poetic tradition. 11

Any inquiry into poetlc language must begln with the basic

question what poetry itself is. But it la quite evident that

even Dr. Johnson fumbled at this point. There have been a

plethora of deflnltions for poetry, but even after ~ 1 1 these, the

rlddlr remalna unresolved.

William Peterfield Trent haa tried to picture the

strange nature of poetlc experience in the following manner :

A fine frenzy eiezee the poet's heart and brain,

transmits itself to his verse, passes through that

medlum into me, and losing for the time being its . I

creative quality, 1s transformed into that more or lees

....................................... L O Geoffiey N. Leech. p.5.

Edward Stankiewico. p. 70.

Page 6

p.~seive state we call rapture. T ~ l s is to me the

supr Be valae or eat poetry . . . . It lifts me hipher

towards heaven, opens my eyes more surely to the

b"autlfu1 vision, wraps me out of space, out of time.

tranemlte me and transforms me more compietely and

ecstatically than any other tranaformlng aaent of whlch

I hdve know: edge. 12

To contain t!l's kind of a thaumaturgical experience into the

capaule of a definition eeeud :a be a futile exercise. Even

T.S.Eliot was flffbbergasted by the elusive nature of this fins

art called poetry. In 'Edst Cocker' he writes as follows:

So here am I , in the middle way

havind had twenty years -

Twenty years laryely wasted. the years

of L'entre deux guerres - Trylnp to use words, and every attempt

Is a wholly new start, and a different

kind of failure

And so each venture or effort at wrltlng

Is a new begining, a raid on the

inartlcualte with

Shabby equlpmenta alwaye deteriorating

In the general mass of impressions of feelin*

Undeqciplined squade of emotions.

Y!iia crisis can be resolved by asking a nlstple question. lo

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - A -

l2 William Peterfield Trent, Greatntr~~s & Litreature. (New

York : Columbia University Prese.1905) 228 .

Page 7

poetry merely a verbal art ? F. R Leav!s in his New Bearinge of - English Poetry_ tried to establish thht poetry is primarily a

verbal art. In his well known book Enalish Poetry & Engliah

language, F. W Batason also podtulates that poetry is above

everything a verbal exercise. The writing of poetry according to

thi, theory consiete in the conscious and deliberate co~~ictruction

of a musical ;,attern of words w.~ich glvcii tiome kind of delight.

and the theme is not of much importance.

J. Middleton Murry eaye of poetry that its purity "lies in

its abeoluLe lnda?endence of the subject."13. Herbert Read is

perhapa the foremoet English exponent of this kind of a verbal

music thoery. In Poetry and Anarchism, he saye of Enalish poetry

that its gra&test beauty " is lnherent in its sound; it too is a

kind of ausic. " 1 4

When the bietory of Setnekrlt poetics 1s examined, it is

found that there were eome scholare like Vamana. wkro

~holehea~tedly held thla view.

Vamana ( A . D 770 - 840) , the proponent of the 'Rliti School'

in his Kavyaalamkaac~ Suutravrltti has stated thus:

15 " Riitiraatmaa kaavyaeya" . [ Style is the soul of Poetry ]

-..------------------------------------

l 3 Riddleton Kurry,"Pure Poetry", Countried of the Hind. 2nd

aeries (London : Oxford University P r e ~ e , 1931) 19.

Herbert Read. Poetry and Anarchism (Faber a Faber 1938) . P. 37

l5 Riiri School of thouyht upholda the view that style is

the soul of poetry. They defined 'riiti' as "vi8iqta

padaracanaa rliti" (Combination of excellent words constitute

But it would be a mietake to assert 'hat poetry is nothing

but a wordy exercise . With what purpose do poets employ words ?

The verbal medium is used to convey some kind of meaning. There

will alwdys te some s e n s ~ within the verae structure . An

electrlcil wire is h carrler of power energy. If there is no

elrcrrlclty, there arisen no need for the conductor.

Bere one be tempted to aaaert that the essence of poetry

lles in the semantic ehadea of the words employed. In other words,

meanLng is extolled ae the life of poetry. When melopoeia - mutrical property 06 the wordn - in refurred to be accepted aa the

'! a,lmary end of poetry, many are a ~ d e to believe that meaning is

the be-all and end-all of poetry.

In English, Ben Joneon, Carlyle, Arnold and others followed

this line of arqument whereaa in India celebrated echolare

like Bharara supported this view. Deliberating on ~aavyahareera

(body of poetry) Bharata says that the theme consitutee the body

of poetry - "Itlvrittam tu kaavyaaya Qarliram

parikalpltamW

[ Itlvrittam or theme makea the body of poetry ]

Dandin'a statameht "Sariiram taavadiqtaarthaa vyavachinna

paiaevalii"'' also etreeses the importance of meaning in

poetry, as it cays that the group of words that bring in the

deaired meaning makes the body of poetry.

But most of tne other ancient Indian poeticiana were of the

opinion that both sound and mapnine constituted the inevitable

....................................... l6

Dai.uin. Kaavyaadarbam, 1 : 10.

Page 9

i n g r e d i e n t s o f p o e t r y . Whlle Bhamaha w r i t e s of pov r y u s

[ P > . t r y I Y c o n s ? l t u e d of sound and me-irlng. ]

VagLklhdan ,:. d e f i n e s ;. ..*try a8 t h e i o l l o v i n g : ./

"pri .,.:irrapt-;aa n a v y a e r t h a yuktyudboodha

e p b a r a n t L r a a t k a v e r r b u d h l l : p r a t L b h a a

sar vatoomukh i .,la

A p o e t who l a a g e n l u a g l v e s u s p1ea;x'ng v o r d e and r.=u

u ~ e a n i t l ~ ~ 1

Anandavardhanan vho was one of t h e c e l e b r a t e d I n d l a n

Poe : . i c l ans , t r l e d t o e s t a b l l e h t h a t i t wan l i e l t h e r sound no r

mean!ng b u t 'Dhwani ' , t h a t constituted t h e s o u l o f p o e t r y . 19

But do we t u r n t o p o e t r y f o r i t n meaning 7 Do we a d m i r e

S h a k e s p e a r e and K a l l d a e a f o r t h e l r p h l l o e o p h y ? I f o u r

i n f a t u a t i o n f o r V a l m i k l , G o e t h e , K a l l d a e a and ~ l i ' a k e a ~ e a t - e l e n o t

f o r t h e dc :*~th o f t h e i r thousk i te o r f o r t h e eoundneee o f t h e l r

c o g l t a t l o n n , t h e n what l a t h a t f a v o u r s r : , e l r b e i n g p e r p e t u a l

foul . i .a l t~s of i : i e p ? r a t i o n f o r a g e s ?

We a r e compe l l ed a y a l n t o f u r t h e r o u r s e a r c h f o r t h e e o u l of

p o e t r y . I t haa been g e n e r a l l y h e l d t h a t t h e i n t r i n s i c t ~ ~ c l t

I ' Bh,..:ahau. Kaavyalamkaram. 1 : 16

Dhwanr S c h o o l a r g u e s t h u t i t i a n o t d i r e c t meaning b u t

s ~ , r e a t e d a:e&nlng o r t h e i m p l i e d meaning t h a t g i v e s l i f e

t o p o r t l c ld t lguage .

Page 10

of poetry doesn't re-t vlth eound nor is its qulnteeeence

equated wlth the thoughts ew'edded in it. The appeal of povtry 1s

nelther to the eare nor to the intellect but to the heart. Hence

It can be stated that poetry la the lanpuage of the he* t.

No one wlll deny that poetry is the expression of

" powerful feellnge*. Uhen feelings become intenaifled, the

language also becomes intense. I f one accepts this, one vill

have to accept that emotlonal and lmaglnatlve expreeelon, at lta

best', ie poeelblu only through figurative language. Hence poetic

, language becomes essentially flgucatlve language.

In the famoue Llnee of Kalldaea, quoted below he describes the

beauty of a lady :

uduraaJa mukhil mrgaraaJa afil . -4 .,"-- gajaraaJa vlraajlta mandagatll.

yatleaa vanitee manaeee vaeltee

kwaJapo kvatapa kwaeomaadhLgot1 7

[Her face la like the moon, her walst slender ae that of the

llon and her movements ae slov and elegant as that of tho

elephant. Uhen ruch a lady ie in my mind vhere else le the Japa

(prayer), where else la the aamadhi (comfort) ? ]

These lines wc ld mean nothing without the three elmiles

employed. When love, anger and other similar paeelona are

expreaaed, language tends to become flguratlve. Thls can be

proved by any number of exanplea from everyday conversation

and from literature.

Wllllam Uordevorth seems to iave committed a o~rlous mistake

vhile propounding his theory of Odetic Language. In the Preface

to the Lyrlcal pal -de he vrote: --

7 d S I

Page 11

I k:*ve s..ld that ,..:etry is the syantaneoua overflow of

pcirrful feelings. I t takes its oryin fro:^, emotions

recollected in tranqu!l?ity : the rmotion is comtemplated

till by species of reaction, the tranquillity

grad~ally dia~ppears, and an emotion kindred to that

wi~lch uas before tht subject of contempIaL'-Lon, iY

6cadually produced, aud CL,es itarlt actua?ly rxlsts in . --

the mind. In thls mood succesefu: composition

generally begins . . . 2 0

Whlle formulating hls views on poetic languaae he st~tes

that a'l ,-..re war taken to avoid the figurea of speech in order to

bridue the gap between poetic dictlon and everyday language:

r, My purpose was to in~ltate, a~rd aa far as ijl

\ 1 .I

possible. to adopt the very lan&uagt, of me)'- and

assuredly uuch personifications do not make any natural

or regular part of that languase. They are, indeed, a

flgure of speech occasionally prompted by passion, and

! have made use of thrui as such, but have endeavoured

utterly to reject them as a ~+chanical device of dtyle.

or as a family of language which writers in metre seem

to lay claim by proacriptiorl. 2 1

20 Wllliam Wordaworth. p. 180.

21 Uilliam Wordworth. p . 167.

Page 12

Even when Wordsworth says that he had conaciouely tried to

avoid f aurative language, he admit* tihat he had occaeiona-ly

accepted eome figures "prompted by passion". Thie is where he

contradictv himself. Figures are prompted by paeslon. Then how is

it possible - i f Beetry ia the eponturreoutr overfd ,w of powerful

fpelinge - to @vioQ figurative language ? Suffice it to say

that kordaworth's mind was not that eharp us that of Coleridge'e,

whg l ~ t e r e-~al$enged many of +he concepts of his friend in his

In The Anatomx of Prase Merj~urie Boulfon writes of the -

rp$@tionship of pmation and language :

It is almost impossible to diecues emotions for

any length of time without figurative lan~uage - anything other than figurative language could be vary

little more than a ecLentific acco&.,t of our

secretion* and the changee in the brain celle . 2 2

Anyone who ssrioualy etudiee Kalida~a or Shakeepeare will

agree that the gharm of their poetry rests with their imagery.

The well known atatement 'Upamaa Kaalidaasaeya " - Kalidaasa

in essence is elmile - epeake volumes about thie aspect. Imagery, ae the word sugpeete, is an outgrovth of

imagination, which ie the paaence of creative personality. And

since the cfeat've pereonality is shared by the reader also, he

rggponds to the imagery and ahares likewise the emotional

effectlvs~eqs of the poem.

...................................... 7 2 Marjourie Qoulton. Sb. enaton= of Praae (London :

--

Rqutledge and Keprn Paul, 1957) 1 4 9 .

A few examples from both English and Kalayalam Poetry are

cited here in order to clarify the statement that genuine poetic

language is truly figurative language. Without a proper study qf

the numerous (lgurea of speech employed by poets. poetry will

rrmain unlntelllgible even to the most enthusiastic readers. It

1s aurprislng to note that all the important books in Englleh

whlch make references to the figures of apeech mention qnly a few

of the two hundred odd rhetoric figures.

All the five poems of T. E. Hulme, lncluded in the Faber

Book of Modern Verme (3rd Editlon) are reproduced here. A 1 1 the

'notable figures of speech employed by the poet are aleo

underlined.

1. AUTUMN

& touch of cold in the autumn night

I walked abroad,

And saw the ruddy moon lean over hedge

Like a red faced farmer. - I did not stop to speak, but i~odded

And round about were the wistful etars

Uith white faces like town c' lldren.

2. KANA ABOD4 -- -- tlana Aboda, whose bd:r form

The sky'e in rch'd circle k, - Seem eve, Eor an unknown grief t, mourn.

Yet one day I heard her cry :

' I weary qf the roses and the e!%uinu poets - Joaephs g, not tall enough to try ' .

3 . -- AROVE - TIIE - DOCK

Above the quite dock is midnight,

Tangled in the mast's corded hrlght

Hangs the moon. What seemed so far away

Is but a child's balloon forgotten after p x -- 4. TPE - EMBANKMENT

Once, in finesse of fields found I ecstasy,

In a flash of gold heels on the hard pavement, - Now see I

That warmth's the very stuff of poetry,

Oh, God, make emall

The old star-eaten blanket of the sky,

That 1 map fold it round me and in comfort lie. -

5. CONVERSION

L1g:rt hearted I walked into the valley wood

In the time of hyacinths

TI11 beauty llke a scented cloth - -- Cast over, Stifled me. I was bound - motlonlasm and faint of breath

% loneliness that is her own eunuch. ---- Now pass I to the final river

Ignominiously, in a eack, without sound.

As any peepirig Turk to the Bosphorne. /--

Any casual reader cf theee poeme will teotify to the f a ~ ~

that the irresistible charm of theae pleces 1s ingrafted in the

figurative language. Remove the figures used, these poeme will be

nothing but dry apeciflchtions of facts.

Page 15

Another poem wrlt'en by Philip Larkin, which ie also

included in the same edition of the Faber Book, is gi9e below.

DAYS -.-

What are days for ?

Days are where we live.

They come, they wake us

Time and time over.

They are to be happy in

Where can we live but day8 ?

Ah aolving that questlon

Brings the priest and the doctor

In their long coats

Running over the fields.

It is difficult Lo find anything poetical in these lines

which can render the 'rasa' or aestheic pleasure, which is the

ultimate end of poetry .

The first few linee of the Ealayalam poem ~ u ~ a t t i ~ ~

which is acclaimed as one of the best creations of Kadammanitta

Ramakriahnan, a contemporary poet, are reproduced here. He is

introducing Kurattl, the protagonist :

malaficuura-mafayil ninnum u~attiyettunnu

Vilafina cuura panambupoole kurattfyrttunnu. -- - [ Ku~atti ( a working claaa wonian) is arriving from

the valley of chuura plant*. She comes like a panambu,(a - mat made of chuura plants, used for drying food

23 Xadammanitta Ramakri~hnd~~, "Ku~att in, Kadarnai,~nittay..&

Xrltikal. ( Kottayam : D. C Cooka, 1 9 8 0 ) 2 1 9 .

grains and other objects), which can bu ;-sily folded with

hands. I

karii?aaEci kaaffil ninnum kurattiyettunnu

k a r c a poole kurattiyettuz. - [ She arrives from the Karillaffchi (another kind of plant)

woods where she works all day long cutting and collectlng

the same. And she comes llke a lorig thread of long

karillanchl plant.]

ceetru paafakkarayillifappo;iyll nlnnum

kuratt 1 yettunnu

iiracilntl erl%iakarlpool kurattlyettunnu. I C - - - - r -

[ She arrived from the place where aha has been workit *

with bamboo and she looks as black as the bamboo powder.]

kugattlyettunnu

rnalakalatifil varurlna nadipool kurattlyettunnt. - [ Kurattl arrives wlth brulaed breasts, freeing herself from

the clutches of hunting dogs. And she comea llke a violent

rlvrr that shakes the mountains. ]

muufuporflya mapkufuttin murlvll nlnnum psrlvumaayl

:<.ura+tlyrttu.nnu

venta mannin viiruooole kurattiyettunnu - - - [ She comes wlth many wour~ds and coatas with the

pangs of hot earth ]

u!iyulukklya kaa$rukal?~n ka??ll ninnum kurattiyettunr*~ >. - kaattutilyas p~tarnnaporipool kurattiyettunnu . . -

Page 17

[ She comes from the rock ao a spark that spreads like wild

fire ]

In theee first twelve lines, the poet uses six highly

suaaestive sim!lee portraying his heroine, which arrest the

attention of the readers and elovly transport them into unknown

realma of sublimity and to an inde~cribable senee of rapture.

The poet would have drawn a blank without theee llterazy flaures.

The first poem in 'Q N - yude Kaavya ~ a m ~ h a a r ~ f i a l ' ~ ~ 1s

named 'Slmhaasanattileekku Viinfum'. The first eection of this poem

conslate of twenty two lines and the poet uses ~ o t less than

fourteen fiaures of apeech in these twefitytwo lines . I f this is

the case of areat poets and good poetry, then wh-t is poetry

without figurative languape ?

That ia why rne ancient Indian potaticlana asserted that poetry

muat be 'alamkaarabhuu?ltam'. ie, fully adorned with alamkaaras :

saadhu iabdaartha sandarbham

pu?aalankaara ?huu?itam

aphu)aritirrsoopanam

kaavyam kurvita kiirttaye . 25

[ Poetry muat be compoeed of excellent words and meaning ,ad it

must be adorned with 'gr-:ae1 (qualities) and alamkaacau ]

Edward P.J.Corbet ln hle 'Classical Rhetoric for Modern

Student' writes about the flguree as follove :

..................................... 2 4 0 . N . V Kurup is one of tho most prominent contempb .ary

Malayalam p ~ a t a . Vaabhadan. Vapbhadaalamkaara 1 : 2.

Page 18

"Figures can render our thou,zits vivldly concrete, they

hele ua to communlcate wlrh our audletice clearly etrd

effectively, beacause they stir 'emotional response;

they convey truth, in Wordsworth'a phrase "alive into

the heart by passion", and beacauae they ellclt

admiration for the eloquences of the speaker or writer.

they car1 exert a powerful ethical appeal". 2 6

I n thelr Jolnt work 'Poetrx +LJ Experience' Norman C . Stageberg and Uallace L. Anderson speak of rhetoric figures as "an

integral part of what the poet has to nay". 2 7

26 Edward P.J iorbet, Cloeaical Rhetoric for Modern

Student (London : Oxford University Press, 1965) 245.

2 7 Norman C. Sta~oberq and Wallace L. Anderson, Poetrx as an Experience ( New York : American Book Company. 1952) 66. -

Poetry is vrltten in a language which makes ampl- use

of figures of speech, such figures, however, are seldom

merely ornamental llke gargoyles on a Gothlc Cathedral,

but instead forms an integral part of what t h e puet has

to eay. They are more llka the arched vlndows encased

in stone. glving essential supflort to tha structure and

illumlnatlng the lnterloc with light and colour. In

otherwurds, fiqurea of speech, serve a structural

purpose in poetry and make posbibla a richness and

complexlty unattainable throu~h literal statement. To

understand poetry then, i t 1s imperative one learns how

to interoret f iaurarive las,guaae.

Page 19

In the fifteenth chapter of 'On the gt;!l& ' ,Longinus

speaks expll~itly on the rhetorical functions of the flqures:

" What t?,en can oratorlal imagary effect ? "

" Well, .it 1s able in many ways to infuse vehemence and

passlon ltlto spoken wards, whlle mure particulrrrly whtn

It is combined vLth the argumetatlve passages, it not

only persuades the hearer, but actually m a ~ e s hlm it6

slave" .

Srownln& calls portn the "makers see" and Carlyle writes of

them an "glfteii to dlscern the God-like myarerlea of God's

universe". Arnold once described Wordaworrh an "a prieet to us

all of tha wonder and bloom of the world". "\is can be said of

all other yenuine poets also. In whatever role a poet may

appear, there can be no doubt to the fact that the most

effective tool that he can make the most of, is the imagery.

In the Uest it was Quintilllaa~ who most emphatically related

the flgurea to the logos, pathoa and ethos of argument. He looked

upon the flgurrs' as another means of "lendlng credibility to our

arguments", "of egltlng emotionan, and of vinnir~g approval for

our characters as pleaders. "28

And it la very interestin8 and important to remember that in

ancient Tqdla, the very name for what is called, 'Literary Crltlci. . I

today , was 'Alamkaara Saastra' ("the oclence of rhetoric

flgures" ) . Thle was the term populariaed by

Bhauaaham, Vamanan, Rudi dan, Vagbhdan arid others. Later i t was

BhoJan, who in h l s 'Saraswathli - =A<-eabharenam' uaed I-'$ ....................................

28 Quintillian, Inetitutio Oratoria, trane. H. E. Butler,

4 Voln (Camsridge : Loeb Claesical Llbrary, 1920) 2 .

Page 20

the term 'Poetics' (Xaavya 6aastra) for the flrst timu. 2 9

A historical overview of rhetoric figures in both Indlai

and gentern traditions, is reserved Lor the ensuing chapters. 111 4-

cont?us:on a btatement by Robert Hlllar and Ian Currie, where

they pointed out how hriatotle reckot.,-d the lmporta~~ri- of the

rhrtorlc figures is cited below :

It was Aristotle, the ancient Greek critic, who

was of the oplnlon that the quality of a poet, and

hence poetry, coulc! be established by the orglnality

and fltnesa of the metaphors and almiles employed. It

was perhapa not too fanciful to assert that tile

'discovery' of metaphor and almile were t o

clvlllz~tion, Just as important as the discovery of

fire or the wheel, or to say that a metaphor or simlle

was the first encyclopaedla, because in ualna one, man

took the flrat etep towards creatlna order out of the

dlverslty of objects around him, by seeing some

identity in two of them. 30

2 9 Sukuaar Azhikode. "Indian Lltarary Criticism".

Bhaak~~,~oahinl, Book 2, Vol. I (Kottayam : "alayala

Hanorama . 1978) 5 .

30 Robert Blllar and Ian Currie, l,le Lanizuape of Poetry

(London : Heinemann Educational Books, 1971) 61.