On Death:A Stylistic Analysis of“The Building”by Philip Larkin

hwsy@overseaen.comISSN 1009 -5039http://www.overseaen.comOverseas English 海外英语Tel:+86- 551-65690811 65690812On Death: A Stylistic Analysis of“The Building”by Philip LarkinMIAO Peng(Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China)Abstract: Adopting a stylistic approach, this paper tries to figure out the theme of Larkin's“The building”by ring it on three different levels: aural, grammatical, and semantic, offering an example of applying stylistic methods to the study ofpoetry.Key words: stylistics; Philip Larkin; The Building; foregrounding; death中图分类号:H0; 1106.2文献标识码:A文章编号: 1009- 5039(2014)16- 0233-03This paper aims at digging out the theme and meaning of Phil-ip Larkin' s poem“'The Building ”，which has aroused heated dis- paper tries to do. Different from the traditional literary analysis thatcussions in both western and Chinese academia, and looking at theplaces much emphasis on the question“ what does this poemway that the theme is presented.mean' ', stylistic analysis adopted in this paper pays more attentionW estern scholars approach Larkin ’s poetry mainly with liter-to the question “how is this poem presented' ，in order to answerary theories and methods, touching upon his“atack upon the philo-the first question. Under the inspiration of those literary critics,sophic idealism of romantic literature ”(Naremore, 1974), his treat- and with the help of the stylistic analysis, my readings of this poemment of religion (Schray, 2002), etc., and few of them apply linguis- comes to a conclusion that this poem talks about“ death' ，to betic approaches to the study of his poetry. Besides, few of themstudy“The Building”solely and thoroughly, figuring out its theme with which human' s compulsive worry and restless struygle neverand meaning.help, and the way that such a conclusion is got, ie. the methodolo-Chinese scholars study Larkin’s poetry from both a linguistic ey of this paper, is as follows.and a literary perspective, paying attention to the stylistic featuresThe sequence is from the “foregrounded” points, i.e. theof certain poems, such as“The Building' , and discussing its themepoints the poet deliberately manipulates to be noticed by the read-and meaning. For instance, Chen Y uehua applies theories of sound ers, to the meaning of the whole poem. First of all, the poem is topatterning, syntactic structures, and semantic relations to the analy- be studied on three different levels一the aural level, the grammati-sis of this poem, considering it as a poem concerning “universalcal level, and the semantic level. On the first level, we pay most at-concerns such as life and death, religion and belief, etc.", and re- tention to the poet’s manipulation of rhyme scheme and sound sym-garding the stylistic approach as‘an auxiliary tool” in meaning bolism; on the second level, we cary on with our discussion underconstruction (2011). Diao Junchun analyzes this poem with the lin- two subcategories: the lexical and the syntactical level; on the thirdguistie theory of“defamiliarization" put forward by the Russian for- level, we give focus to figurative usage of language. On each level,malist Shklovsky and the literary theory of “tension” put forwardthe discussion on the implication of meaning comes after the de-by the New Criticism scholar Allen Tate, focusing on the architee- scription of the stylistic features. Then, we combine the meaningstural images and finding out the religous irony (2013). Both of thewe get to figure out the theme of the whole poem.Firstly, the poem is to be studied on the aural level. “Tradi-poetry, while neither of them manages to do that in a complete man- tionally the definition of poetry takes sound as its key distinctivener: stylistic analysis should not be viewed as an auxiliary tool, ortextual feature" (Qu, 2009), so the manipulation of sound, its stylis-else a paper adopting stylistic methods to analyzing poetry becomes tic efcts, and its meaning implication are worthy of inspection.a literary one“wearing a linguistic coat”; the analysis of defamiliar- Fist, the rhyme scheme of this poem will be studied, for the idea ofization in certain aspects, such as rthyme scheme and word usage,rhyme in poetry is familiar to most people, thus being regarded asis incomplete and does not help much to work out the meaning of what defines poetry (Thornborrow and W areing, 2000). Here, bythe poem.“rhyme scheme”we mean“end rthyme”that helps add coherenceOn the whole, the current academia lacks some readingngs ofto the poetic structure (Qu, 2009):this poem that work out its theme and meaning from a linguisticHigher than the handsomest hotelaa中国煤化工MYHCNMHG收稿日期:2014-05-05修回日期:2014-05-24 .作者简介:缪蓬,男,复旦大学硕士研究生,主要研究文体学、话语分析。本栏目责任编辑:谢嫒嫒Overseas English海外英语2014年08月The lucent comb shows up for miles, but see,b b sounds:“s”appears for 90 times,“2” 66 times,“sh”6 times, andAll round it close-ribbed streets rise and fall“x”1 time. In all, sibilants appear no less than 163 times, theLike a great sigh out of the last century.b abundance in which can be regarded as phonological deviation.The porters are scrufty; what keep drawing upThese sibilants help form an aural background of this poem, whichAt the entrance are not taxis; and in the hallis quiet, in accordance with the word“"quiet” in“They see him,As well as creepers hangs a frightening smell.oo. They're quiet. To realize/This new thing held in commonThere are paperbacks, and tea at so much a cup,makes them quiet”, as well as associating the readers with theLike an airport lounge, but those who tamely sitsound of whispering and murmuring of the people, implying theirOn rows of steel chairs turning the ripped magscompulsive fear of death.Haven't come far. More like a local bus.For another, this poem contains a high proportion of long vow-These outdoor clothes and haf-illed shopping -bags()els, such as /a:/, /i:/, /:/, /u:/, /ao/, /u/, /e1/, etc. After a brief cal-And faces restless and resigned, althoughculation, we find no less than 208 long vowels in this 64-line po-Every few minutes comes a kind of nurseem, which means each line contains at least 3 long vowels. The fol-The rhyme of the first stanza can be presented as“abcbdca '，lowing lines provide us with a typical and eye-catching example ofand that of the second is“ abcedced" . A brief inspection of the two the use of long vowels in this poem:‘ For past these doors arestanzas shows that the rhymes of these two stanzas are different, rooms, and rooms past those,/And more rooms yet, each one furtherand after taking a look at the third stanza, we find that its rhymeof" . The chain of rooms makes up an endless passage, of which the“abacdce" is still different from the previous two:destination is unseen. The long vowels, in accordance with the im-To fetch someone away: the rest refitlage of this passage, slow down the tempo of the poem to an unnces-Cups back to saucers, cough, or glance belowary degree, implying the tediousness of life. In this sense,Seats for dropped gloves or cards. Humans, caughta“ death' , the destination of this passage, relieves people from suchOn ground curiously neutral, homes and namestediousness and becomes reasonable, and even desirable. It is notSuddenly in abeyance; some are young,an object of fear any more. .Some old, but most al that vague age that claimsSecondly, the poem is to be studied on the grammatical level.The end of choice, the last of hope; and allIn this part, our analysis will be done under two subcategories: theDo the difference in end rhymes of these three stanzas mean lexical level and the syntactical level. On the lexical level, ourthe iregularity of rthyme scheme of this poem? w hen we rearrange work is more like a textual analysis, which tries to dig out moreour way of reading these three stanzas, we can get a negative an-meanings through the inspection of the words. First, we take a lookswer to this question: if we regard the first line of the second stanza at the nouns which can be classified into three groups clusteringas part of the first one, and the first line of the third stanza as partaround three “ nodes' :“the building” ，humans, and death. Theof the second one, we can find that the rearranged first two stanzasnouns that are related to“the building”provide two pictures: an ex-share an end rhyme“abcbdead", and this rhyme also occurs in the terior one and an interior one. Outside“the building”, “close-rest part of the poem. This way of analyzing its rhyme scheme is al-ibbed streets rise and fall", and there are “Red brick, laggedso adopted by other scholars (e.g., Chen Y uehua; Diao Junchun). pipes ”，“ someone”who is' "free' ，and“short terraced streets”Typographically, the last line of this poem,“With wasteful, weak，where kids and girls stay, while inside“the building” “hangs apropitiatory flowers", is foregrounded, being the only one -line stan-frightening smell". The exterior and the interior of“the building”za in this poem consisting of heptastiches, but when we arrange itsseem to form a contrast, but nouns concerming humans immediatelystanzas in coherence with its sound, we find that the last line is justerase their difference:“ some are young, some old"，women, men,part of the last stanza (newly- arranged), and its oddity disappears. old, young’-they“all know they are going to die”. What stays be-The manipulation of rhyme scheme reminds the readers of their hind such erasion is normality, which will be later discussed on inview upon“death' : when seen as a single entity,“death” containsthe semantic part. Looking back on the humans: they will be putoddity and arouses fear, but when the perspective is switched, on wheels, wearing “washed- -to- rags ward clothes" , for it is some-“death” can be regarded as the end of a circle, being still part of it，thing “held in common' ; for them, ‘ something has gone wrong ”,just like the last line of this poem. In this sense,“death" is stillwhich“must be error of a serious sort"; what' s more, they are“atpart of life, which is natural and not fearsome, though being the the vague age that claims the end of choice, the last of hope' , whichend of it. .are related to the third node, death. With the establishment of theSecond, the sound symbolism in this poem will be inspected. relationship among the three nodes, we figure out the referent ofHere, by sound symbolism we mean“phonaesthesia' ，the correla-‘the building”: hospital, which is referred to in an ambiguous way.tion between the occurrence of certain sounds and their characteris-On the one handears in this poem;tie context of experience and situation (Firth, 1935), which bring on the other, the中国煤化工”“nurse' '，is modi-about associative meanings. The procedure of the analysis consists fied by“a kind C:TYHC N M H Gnplication. Similar-of two steps: identification and semantic association (Qu, 2009, ply, the mentioning of“death" is ambiguous: it is described in terms122). For one thing, this poem contains a high proportion of sibilant of “choice”and“hope' , as“the coming dark", which blurs our vi-234 /遭孚研酸7 7 2本栏目责任编辑:谢媛媛2014年08月.Overseas English海外英语sion. The ambiguity of these two referents suggests people' s unwill- construction of this poem. First, the building, i.e. the hospital, ising to talk about“death” ，which entails their fear of it as well as the tenor, and“an airport lounge” is the vehicle. The hospital iswhat is relevant with it, such as hospital.compared to“an airport lounge”, and the ground is stated by“pa-Second, we take a look at the verbs that further shows the hu-perbacks" and“tea” ，which are normal and in daily use; second,man' s features. We classify them into two sorts: verbs used in the the hospital is compared to“a local bus", and the phrase“haven'tpassive voice, and verbs describing actions of accepting a current come far”and the word“local" point out its ground, which sharessituation. The following lines provide us with some examples of thethe same features with the “airport lounge”". Both of the similesfirst sort:“Humans, caught on ground curiously neutral, homes and bring out the normality of“the building", thus bringing out the nor-names suddenly in abeyance' ;“And so, unreal a touching dreammality of what humans relate it with一deatlto which we all are lulled but wake from separately." The verbsFor another, the image of the‘church” is worthy of our atten-used passively imply the lack of power and initiative of the hu- tion. The image of church is common in Larkin’s poetry, and Lar-mans, and the verbs in the following lines also help bring out suchin“presents religion as ‘an unanswered cry for help', a‘rou-implication: “although every few minutes comes a kind of nurse to tine' ,a‘ trick’”(Schra, 2002) with it. The intertextuality carriesfetch someone away' ; “"This new thing held in common makes them coherence in meaning, so the image of church here also representsquiet”. The following lines provide us with some examples of the Larkin's “frustration with religion’s inability to counter death insecond sort: “and all here to confess that something has gone his early poetry" (.59), which is in accordance with human' s in-wrong" ; "'They see him, too. They' re quiet. To realise [.]” . These ability and futility when faced with death. What’s more, the churchverbs show the acceptance of the humans of some current situa- here is a“locked” one, which shows human’s“struggle to tran-tions without any power to change them. Both sorts indicate hu- scend the thought of dying”by searching for substitutions for it,man' s inability and futility when faced with death. Although thereand such effort is proved to be failure, “for unless its powers out-are also words in the active voice which does not belong to the sec- build cathedrals nothing contravenes the coming dark".ond sort, such as“climb" in“see, as they cl imb to their appointedNow, we have finished our discussion on the stylistic featureslevels”, they do not weaken such implication: the initiative brought on each level and their meaning implications, and then we will com-out by“climb" is immediately cancelled by the word“appointed”bine what we have drawn from these points deliberately highlightedafter it. Besides, some adijctives also help enhance such implica-ly the poet and construct the meaning of the whole poem. The poettion, for example,“restless and resigned' ', which are in accordance describes “death" as natural and normal, making it no longer an ob-with the two sorts of verbs.jeet of fear. At the same time, the humans never stop worryingabout and struggling against it, while they can do nothing about it.is not difficult to find that the sentences of this poem are not cut by So we can make a conclusion that this poem talks about death:lines or stanzas; they continue beyond the ends of the lines and the death is natural and normal and not fearsome, faced with which hu-stanzas, thus forming enjambment, and the following lines provide man’ s compulsive worry and restless struggle never help. Nous with an example:doubt, this is not the only way of reading this poem. The stylisticHalf- past eleven on a working day,method here helps answer the question “how is this poem present-And these picked out of it; see, as they c limbed”as well as avoids subjectivity, and makes contributions to theTo their appointed levels, how their eyesconstruction of the meaning, that is, to the answer to the questionGo to each other, guessing; on the way“what does this poem mean”Someone 's wheeled past, in washed-to-rags ward clothes: .References:“As they elimb to their appointed levels" is a case where asentence goes beyond the end of a stanza, and“on the way some-[1] Thornborrow J,W areing S.Patterns in language: Stylistics forstudents of language and literature[M ].Beijing, China:Foreignone's wheeled past, in washed-to- rags ward clothes”is one whereLanguage Teaching and Research Press, 2000.a sentence goes beyond the end of a line. Such manipulation of thesyntactical structure makes it suffcating to read, reminding the[2] Leech G.A linguistic guide to English poetryM].Beijing:For-ign Language Teaching and Research Press,2001.readers of their atitude towards death, i.e. their fear of it.Thirdly, the poem is to be studied on the semantic level. In .[3] Naremore J.Philip larkin 's "lost world' IJ].Contemporary litera-ture,1974,15(3):331-344.this part, our atention will be paid to figures of speech and images.For one thing, as far as the figurative usage of language is con-[4] Schray K A R.To seek this place for what it was:church goingin larkin's potry[J].South atlantic view,2002,67(2):52-64.cerned, we bring focus to two similes: "There are paperbacks, andtea at so much a cup, like an airport lounge", and“On rows of steel[5]曲卫国.话语文体学:文本分析方法[M].上海:复旦大学出版社2009.chairs turning the ripped mags haven't come far. More like a localbus." 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