An example is: «And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain» (E.A. Poe), where the repetition of the sound [s] actually produces the sound of the rustling of the curtain. [11]
Alliteration is a phonetic stylistic device which aims at imparting a melodic effect to the utterance. The essence of this device lies in the repetition of similar sounds, in particular consonant sounds, in close succession, particularly at the beginning of successive words: «The possessive instinct never stands still (J. Galsworthy) or, «Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before» (E.A. Poe).
Alliteration, like most stylistic devices, does not bear any lexical or other meaning unless we agree that a sound meaning exists as such. But even so we may not be able to specify clearly the character of this meaning, and the term will merely suggest that a certain amount of information is contained in the repetition of sounds, as is the case with the repetition of lexical units.
But even so we may not be able to specify clearly the character of this meaning, and the term will merely suggest that a certain amount of information is contained in the repetition of sounds, as is the case with the repetition of lexical units.
However, certain sounds, if repeated, may produce an effect that can be specified.
For example, the sound [m] is frequently used by Tennyson in the poem «The Lotus Eaters» to give a somnolent effect.
«How sweet it were,…
To lend our hearts and spirits wholly
To the music of mild minded melancholy;
To muse and brood and live again in memory.»
Therefore alliteration is generally regarded as a musical accompaniment of the author's idea, supporting it with some vague emotional atmosphere which each reader interprets for himself. [11]
Rhyme is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combination of words. Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.
Identity and similarity of sound combinations may be relative. For instance, we distinguish between full rhymes and incomplete rhymes.
The full rhyme presupposes identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds in a stressed syllable, including the initial consonant of the second syllable (in polysyllabic words), we have exact or identical rhymes.
Incomplete rhymes present a greater variety. They can be divided into two main groups: vowel rhymes and consonant rhymes.
In vowel-rhymes the vowels of the syllables in corresponding words are identical, but the consonants may be different as in flesh – fresh – press. Consonant rhymes, on the contrary, show concordance in consonants and disparity in vowels, as in worth – forth, tale – tool – treble – trouble; flung – long.
Modifications in rhyming sometimes go so far as to make one word rhyme with a combination of words; or two or even three words rhyme with a corresponding two or three words, as in «upon her honour – won her», «bottom – forgot them – shot him». Such rhymes are called compound or broken. The peculiarity of rhymes of this type is that the combination of words is made to sound like one word – a device which inevitably gives a colloquial and sometimes a humorous touch to the utterance. Compound rhyme may be set against what is called eye – rhyme, where the letters and not the sounds are identical, as in love – prove, flood – brood, have – grave. It follows that compound rhyme is perceived in reading aloud, eye – rhyme can only be perceived in the written verse.
Many eye-rhymes are the result of historical changes in the vowel sounds in certain positions. The continuity of English verse manifests itself also in retention of some pairs of what were once rhyming words. But on the analogy of these pairs, new eye-rhymes have been coined and the model now functions alongside ear-rhymes.
According to the way the rhymes are arranged within the stanza, certain models have crystallized, for instance:
1. couplets – when the last words of two successive lines are rhymed. This is commonly marked aa,
2. triple rhymes–aaa
3. cross rhymes–abab
4. framing or ring rhymes–abba[11]
Rhythm exists in all spheres of human activity and assumes multifarious forms. It is a mighty weapon in stirring up emotions whatever its nature or origin, whether it is musical, mechanical or symmetrical as in architecture. The most general definition of rhythm may be expressed as follows: «rhythm is a flow, movement, procedure, etc. characterized by basically regular recurrence of elements or features, as beat, or accent, in alternation with opposite or different elements of features» [6].
Rhythm can be perceived only provided that there is some kind of experience in catching the opposite elements or features in their correlation, and, what is of paramount importance, experience in catching regularity of alternating patterns. Rhythm is a periodicity, which requires specification as to the type of periodicity. Inverse rhythm is regular succession of weak and strong stress. A rhythm in language necessarily demands oppositions that alternate: long, short; stressed, unstressed; high, low and other contrasting segments of speech.
Academician V.M. Zhirmunsky suggests that the concept of rhythm should be distinguished from that of a metre. Metre is any form of periodicity in verse, its kind being determined by the character and number of syllables of which it consists. The metre is a strict regularity, consistency and unchangeability. Rhythm is flexible and sometimes an effort is required to perceive it. In classical verse it is perceived at the background of the metre. In accented verse – by the number of stresses in a line. In prose – by the alternation of similar syntactical patterns. Rhythm in verse as a stylistic device is defined as a combination of the ideal metrical scheme and the variations of it, variations which are governed by the standard. [2] There are the following rhythmic patterns of verse:
Iambus
Dactul
Umphibrach
Anapaest
Rhythm is not a mere addition to verse or emotive prose, which also has its rhythm. Rhythm intensifies the emotions. It contributes to the general sense. Much has been said and writhen about rhythm in prose. Some investigators, in attempting to find rhythmical patterns of prose, superimpose metrical measures on prose. But the parameters of the rhythm in verse and in prose are entirely different. [11]
In poetry all these phonetic expressive means and stylistic devices play the most significant role. Their realization can be best seen on the example of the works by Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose poems are often called «songs» in order to underline the melody of his speech. [5]
2. Practical Part
2.1 Percy Bisshe Shelley’s life and literary work
To understand better Shelley’s manner of writing, it’s necessary to say first some words about his life and literary work.
As a writer, Shelley has been criticised for his obscure symbolism, intellectual arrogance and intense self-pity. However, in his greatest works he transcends these limitations and conveys a message of hope and aspiration through strikingly beautiful prose and poetry.
Percy Bysshe Shelley (4 August 1792 – 8 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded among the finest lyric poets in the English language. He is most famous for such classic anthology verse works as Ozymandias, Ode to the West Wind, To a Skylark, and The Masque of Anarchy, which are among the most popular and critically acclaimed poems in the English language. His major works, however, are long visionary poems which included Prometheus Unbound, Alastor, Adonaïs, The Revolt of Islam, and the unfinished work The Triumph of Life. The Cenci (1819) and Prometheus Unbound (1820) were dramatic plays in five and four acts respectively. He wrote the Gothic novels Zastrozzi (1810) and St. Irvyne (1811) and the short works The Assassins (1814) and The Coliseum (1817).
Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron. The novelist Mary Shelley was his second wife.
Shelley never lived to see the extent of his success and influence. Some of his works were published, but they were often suppressed upon publication. Up until his death, with approximately 50 readers as his audience, it is said he made no more than 40 pounds from his writings. For example, in 1813, at age 21 Shelley «printed» his first major poem, «Queen Mab». He set the press and ran 250 copies of this radical and revolutionary tract. «Queen Mab» was infused with scientific language and naturalizing moral prescriptions for an oppressed humanity in an industrializing world. He intended the poem to be private and distributed it among his close friends and acquaintances.
His early works are characterized by intense political passion. In them he proposed republicanism, free love, atheism and vegetarianism. They contain many autobiographical references and introduced the theme of struggle and renewal, which is present in much of his later works. Musical patterns of his works, which are built on internal rhyme, assonance and run-on lines, clearly show the poet’s mastery of his art. [9]
2.2 The analysis of the content of the song «To the Men of England»
First of all one should introduce the poem itself:
Men of England, wherefore plough
For the Lords who lay you low?
Wherefore weave with toil and care,
The rich robes your tyrants wear?
Wherefore feed, and clothe and save,
From the cradle to the grave,
Those ungrateful drones who
Drain your sweat – nay, drink your blood!
Have ye leisure, comfort, calm,
Shelter, food, love's gentle balm?
Or what is ye buy so dear
With your pain and with your fear?
The seed ye sow, another reaps;
The wealth ye find, another keeps;
The robes ye weave, another wears;
The arms ye forge, another bears.
Sow seed – but let no tyrant reap;
Find wealth – let no impostor heap;
Weave robes – let not the idle wear;
Forge arms – in your defence to bear.
With plough and spade, and hoe and loom,
Trace your grave, and build your tomb,
And weave your winding sheet, till fair
England be your sepulcher.
The text poem in details and its translation into Russian, made by S.Y. Marshak can be seen in Supplement №1.
The song «To the Men of England» was written by Shelley in 1818, while he was staying in Italy. It is an expression of his indignation at the cruelty of capitalist exploitation. Thus it is imbued with bitter irony and wrath. The poem is built on a contrast between «Men of England» – the labourers, who create real value, and the lords – «the ungrateful drones» who exploit the toilers – «drink their blood». Thus, at first look it is quite obvious that this song is meant to be an empowering anthem for the workers of England. However, upon closer examination, it becomes quite clear that Shelley’s message may be a little bit more complicated than it seems. [14]
The poem possesses many confusing paradoxes, it is dominated by paradox. With all these features Shelley’s intentions no longer seem to be clear. However, when all of them are put together, it can be seen that the negative and cynical aspects of the poem serve to make «To the Men of England» not just a cry of empowerment, but an urgent, stirring call to action for the labourers of he country.
The first paradox arises in lines seven and eight:
«Those ungrateful drones who would
Drain you sweat-nay, drink your blood!»
In these lines the author refers to the lords of workers as «ungrateful drones». A drone is defined as a male bee that neither works nor does any harm, because it is stingless. So, this part undermines the power of the workers’ lords, insults them and makes a mockery at them. However, the idea of lords being harmless and lazy is immediately followed by a very disturbing statement «drink your blood», which changes the tone of the message completely. Not only do the lords have power to drain the sweat out of workers, but they drink their blood! The lords are compared to vampires, immortal bloodsuckers who render their victims powerless and dead.
The same paradoxical idea appears throughout the poem. The author treats the lords as tyrants in lines four and twenty-one, indicating their powers as absolute. At the same time he calls them «stingless drones» in lines eleven and idle in line twenty-three, rendering them powerless and ridiculous.
So, what are the lords? How does the poet want the reader to see them? Are they powerless, lazy drones or tyrannical, immortal vampires, sucking the blood and life out of their victims?
Solving another mystery of the poem can answer these questions. In the last two stanzas the poem takes a dramatic turn. The poet shifts from commanding the workers to work for themselves and overthrow their tyrants to hide in their cellars, holes and cells (line twenty-five) and to build their graves. But the last stanza seems to insult the workers and to surrender hope for them. It ends the poem in a dreary note, telling the workers to «Trace your grave and build your tomb, And weave your winding-sheet till fair, England be your sepulcher.» (lines thirty to thirty-two). Now, it seems as if the author has been insulting the workers all along. He tells them that they allow themselves to be bullied by lazy, harmless men so that they may as well just build their own graves. His language shifts from romantic and sensitive in the beginning of the poem, to harsh, dark monosyllabic words, like «with plough and spade and hoe and loom, Trace your grave and build your tomb» in the last stanza. Thus, the author delivers the hammering effect. As a result, the last stanza creates a sense of urgency and anger, making its message stand out from the rest of the poem.
So, has the poem been trying to empower workers all along or has it been contemptuously criticizing them? The answer is actually both. Though the last stanza serves to offset the rest of the poem, it doesn’t overpower the initial message of the empowerment. Instead, it actually emphasizes the message. Throughout the beginning of the poem, the author is really pointing out the way things are. He recognizes the absurdity and unfairness of things. Then, in the middle he tells the workers how it should be:
«Sow seed-but let not tyrant reap;
Find wealth, – let no imposter heap;
Weave robes, – let not the idle wear;
Forge arms, – in your defence to bear.» (lines twenty-one to twenty-four).
And finally, the last stanzas come. The last two stanzas again tell the workers of how things are:
«Ye see The steel ye tempered glance on ye». (lines twenty-seven to twenty-eight).
Basically, he tells the workers that they are digging their own graves by giving power to their initially harmless lords. Here, commanding them to dig their graves is different from the commands he gave them in lines twenty-one to twenty-four. By telling them to dig their graves, he is simply telling them what is going to happen if they continue to live with how things are.
What is actually happening is a juxtaposition of two ideas: of how things are, how things should be, and how things are again. In this way, the poet successfully delivers an image, a message. He successfully shows the contrast between the two ideas by sandwiching one inside the repetitions of the other. The middle idea, lines twenty-one to twenty-four, which is that of empowerment, then becomes like a bright, red flower sticking out amidst a dark, dreary landscape of reality. Furthermore, the last stanzas delivering the final repetition of the initial imagery are so dark and urgent with a hint of insult that it stirs the emotion of the reader. A worker reading the poem would have been angered by the last stanza and be stirred to follow true message of the poem in order to prevent the ending from becoming a reality.
2.3 The analysis of the song «To The Men of England» from the point of view of stylistic phonetics
The stylistic analysis of the Shelley’s song «To the Men of England» will be better understood with the help of the following table:
| Example | Commentary |
| «Men of England, wherefore plough For the lords who lay ye low?» | Here is the imperfect rhyme in the first stanza. These first two lines are meant to be an appeal, expressed through a syntactical stylistic device of rhetorical question. |
| «Wherefore weave with toil and care, The rich robes your tyrants wear?» | Here is the incomplete compound rhyme, which can only be perceived in reading aloud, since the pronunciation of «care» and «wear» are quite similar: [keə] and [weə]. There is also a case of alliteration – werefore, weave, with; rich robes. Here it aims at imparting a melodical effect to the stanza, thus making it sound agitative. |
| «Wherefore feed, and clothe, and save From the cradle to the grave…» «Have ye leisure, comfort, calm, Shelter, food, love’s gentle balm?» «Weave robes, – let no idler wear; Forge arms, – in your defence to bear.» «Shrink to your cellars, holes, and cells; In halls ye deck, another dwells.» | Here are the cases of the full or identical rhyme. The rhyming scheme is couplet (aa bb). Throughout the whole poem there are only several cases of different kinds of incomplete rhymes and the full rhymes are prevailing. Using rhymes, the author reinforces the meaning he wishes to convey and gives a tone and pace of the poem, making it sound agitating, worrying and sometimes even looming. |
| «The seed ye sow, another reaps; The wealth ye find, another keeps;… «Sow seed – but let no tyrant reap; Find wealth, – let no impostor heap;…» | The ideas, expressed in these lines from fourth and sixth stanzas are expressed through a syntactical stylistic device of parallel constructions, forming a kind of antithesis. Although this stylistic device is syntactical, it also produces a strong phonetic effect, making these lines sound imperative. |
| «With plough and spade, and hoe and loom, Trace your grave, and build your tomb, And weave your winding-sheet, till fair England be your sepulchre.» | The lines of the last stanza bear cases of compound rhyme, which can only be perceived in oratory speech. The last words of each line are pronounced quite similar: [lu:m] – [tu:m], [feə] – ['sep(ə) lkə]. This stanza with its broken rhymes presents a kind of sinister warning. |
| «Why shake the chains ye wrought? Ye see The steel ye tempered glance on ye.» «The robes ye weave, another wears; The arms ye forge, another bears.» | One must note that the use of archaic form of pronounce «ye» adds to a solemn atmosphere created by the use of phonetic stylistic devices and some syntactical stylistic devices and heightens the emotional appeal of the poem. In the seventh stanza «ye» and «see» also produce a full rhyme. |
Having analyzed the song «To the Men of England», it can be said that he possesses a great mastery, expressing it through the use of the phonetic stylistic devices and expressive means. Through his strikingly beautiful prose and poetry he conveys a message of hope and aspiration, though he has been criticized for his obscure symbolism and arrogance.