ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper is to analyze Mary Oliver’s “Death at a Great Distance”
from the viewing platform of stylistics analysis. This stylistics analysis shelters the
different features such as lexical, morphological, and phonological patterns. Also found
tropes and schemes that are present in the poem. This research is helpful to analyze
the structure and style of Mary Oliver’s poetry, and her on views, tones and treatment of
nature by using different stylistic devices.

INTRODUCTION
Mary Oliver became born on September 10, 1935, in Maple Heights, Ohio. As a
youngster, she lived briefly within the home of Edna St. Vincent Millay in Austerlitz, New
York, where she helped Millay's circle of relatives.
In the mid-1950s, Oliver attended each Ohio Country College and Vassar
University, though she did have the degree.
Her first collection of poems, No Voyage, and Other Poems, was published in
1963. She went on to publish more than fifteen collections of poetry, including Blue
Horses (Penguin Press, 2014); A Thousand Mornings (Penguin Press, 2012); Swan:
Poems and Prose Poems (Beacon Press, 2010); Red Bird (2008); Thirst (2006); Why I
Wake Early (2004); Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays (2003); Winter
Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and Poems (Mariner Books, 1999); West
Wind (1997); White Pine (1994); New and Selected Poems (1992), which won the
National Book Award; House of Light (1990), which won the Christopher Award and the
L. L. Winship PEN New England Award; and American Primitive (1983), for which she
won the Pulitzer Prize.
Oliver, who referred to Walt Whitman as an impact, is most popular for her
stunningness filled, frequently confident, reflections on and perceptions of nature. "Mary
Oliver’s verse is a phenomenal antitoxin for the overabundance of civilization, " thought
of one commentator for the Harvard Survey, "for an excessive amount of whirlwind and
heedlessness, and the ornate shows of our social and expert lives. She is an artist of
intelligence and liberality whose vision permits us to take a gander at a world not of our
making."
Her honors incorporate an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, a
Lannan Literary Award, the Poetry Society of America's Shelley Memorial Prize and
Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and
the National Endowment for the Arts.
Oliver held the Catharine Osgood Cultivate Foster Chair for Distinguished
Instructing at Bennington School until 2001. She lived for more than forty years in
Provincetown, Massachusetts, with her partern Molly Malone Cook, a picture taker and
exhibition proprietor. After the death of Malone Cook in 2005, Oliver later moved toward
the southeastern shoreline of Florida. Mary Oliver died of cancer at the age of 83 in
Hobe Sound, Florida, on January 17, 2019.
One of the poem that Oliver wrote is entitled, “Death at a Great Distance” which
talks about the speaker’s observation of some poisonous mushrooms and thinks that
eating would kill the speaker in the poem, though there is no deeper reflection of what
would happen to the speaker’s body than remarking that this thought was not pursued.
 ANALYSIS PROPER

1. Lexical Deviation
Lexical deviation is a very important aspect in poetry. The language of
poetry sometimes deviates lexically. The poet may break the rules of word formation
and coin strange and new words. Lexical deviation deals with the departure from the
norms of the lexis in the language (Nasser, 2018). Also, lexical deviation in literature
occurs when words depart from their normal standard, or when words are invented in a
process called neologism or nonce-formation, to create deeper meaning and esthetic
value, to achieve a certain (stylistic) effect or to meet a lexical need for a single
occasion.

 “of the eventual corruption of my body”

The author used the word “corruption” not to talk about dishonesty of those
people with power but she used it as an adjective that signifies of being weak
and clumsy.

 “the soft rope of a water moccasin”

The “rope” in the poem does not mean as a strong and long cord made by
twisting natural and artificial fibers. Thus, it is the body of a snake that is a water
moccasin. Also, it tells that the body of the snake is long as a rope that has been
seen by the speaker.

2. Phonological Deviation
This is the deviation in sound or pronunciation which is done deliberately
in to preserving the rhyme. Thus this is the study of sounds. Phonological
deviation is characterized by inadequate use of phonological rules of language, due to a
linguistic disorganization, while phonetic deviation is a mechanical change in articulatory
production arising from a motor disability involved in sound production ( Glaing &
Espeland, 2005).

 The 30-line poem has uses the following rhyme scheme:

AABBCC
We can see the use of alliterations in the poem. Also, there are rhyming words in
the this poem. These are the following:
Caps, pinewoods doorknobs, half-moons, saucers, unless, lips knees, ribs
happiness and bubbles;
South, death and mouth
Happen, moccasin

3. Morphological Deviation
 According to Crystal (2003), any sort of deviant morphological constructions is
the product of ill-formed morphemes. This deviation, which is quite common in literary
texts, is related to the way words are formed. Morphological deviations involve many
things, such as addition of affixes to words which they usually do not take or removal of
their usual affixes.
 ...”glow in the pinewoods”

The author used compound. The word “pinewoods” is used as a noun. The word
aforementioned are composed of two units which are the “pine” which mean a
sharp green tree and “woods” which means lumber.

 “like a collection of doorknobs.

The author used the compound word, “door” and “knobs”. Compound word is
made up of two or more words that express a single idea and function as a single
word. The “door” is the created opening in the wall. While “knob” is a handle on a
door or drawer shaped like a ball.

 “…half-moons”

The author used hyphenated compound words. The words are “half” and
“moons”. The compound word aforementioned defines as something that is
shaped like a half circle or a crescent, such as the lunula of fingernails.

 “on the surface of that underworld announced”

The author again compound word that is written as a single word and it has two
words and combine to form a new word and that is “underworld” which means the
mythical adobe of the dead, imagined as being under earth.
 “a fatal carelessness. I didn’t...”

“carelessness” consists of 1 free morpheme or a word, and 2 bound morphemes,

“less” and “ness”.

Hence, the author used compound word and helps to convey the message
of the poem. Thus, Morphological knowledge, or the ability to identify and
manipulate the smallest units of meaning within a word, contributes to students’
abilities to read and understand words as well as comprehend texts (Levesque et
al., 2017).

4. Figurative Use of Language

Schemes and tropes are figure of speech used to create a particular style of
writing. As mentioned by Campbell, 2017, schemes and troupes are artful deviation
from the ordinary or principal signification or arrangement of words. They are creative
alteration in the unusual way or in the usual order of words.
 Simile:

“…but of how quaint and humorous they are like a collection of doorknobs”
 With the aforementioned line, the author compared the fly amanita to a
collection of doorknobs. The author used simile to show what the shapes of
the fungus in the poem are.

“…housed in their smooth, white sleeves of muscle moving it like happiness”

The author compared the going down moccasin to the happiness she/he
feels to the water.

“...amazed and full attention as it fell like a stream of glowing syrup into the dark
water,…”
The line was focused on the moccasin who fell into the water and the
author compared the water into a stream which is a glowing liquid.
“the dark water, as death blurted out of that perfectly arranged mouth.”
The author compared the darkness into the death. This is to emphasize
darkness signifies the stop of everything and you cannot see nothing but
darkness.

Personification:
“The ripe, floating caps of the fly amanita glow in the pinewoods. I don’t
even think of the eventual corruption of my body, but of how quaint and
humorous they are,…”
On these lines, the author inanimate the attribution of human to an animal
and that is being quaint and humorous. Thus, the author used personification to
emphasize the beauty and characteristics of the fly amanita.

“the soft rope of a water moccasin slid down the red knees of a mangrove,
the hundred of ribs…
The author used personification where she mentioned that mangrove has
red knees but in reality, it doesn’t have. Therefore, personification helps the
writer to describe the color of the mangrove on that specific setting.

Allusion:
“like a happiness toward the water, where some bubbles on the surface
of that underworld announced a fatal carelessness.”
The author used allusion or a brief and indirect reference to a place
(underworld) and many more significance. It can be from many sources like,
Bible, Greek or Roman Mythology or Shakespeare.

Imagery and Symbolism:

 Fly amanita: It symbolizes the hardships of life as poisonous ones.
Underworld: The poet used the underworld to signify that there is
death.

CONCLUSION

The story of this poem entitled “Death at a Great Distance” is that the speaker
observes some poisonous mushrooms and contemplates that eating them would kill the
speaker, though there is no deeper reflection of what would happen to the speaker’s
body than remarking that this thought was not pursued.
Moreover, the selection of words by the poet plays a very vital role in meaning
constructing. It supports the reader to apprehend the meaning the poet is trying to pass
on. With the help of different deviations, the readers can vividly see the pictures of the
specific scenarios. Also, it helps the poet to convey the central message of the poem.
Hence, deviations and selection of words to the poem aforementioned to relay the
message and for the readers to enjoy and reflect.
 References

Levesque, Kyle & Kieffer, Michael & Deacon, Hélène. (2017). Morphological awareness
and reading comprehension: Examining mediating factors. Journal of
Experimental Child Psychology. In Press. 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.02.015.

Campbell J. (2017). Figure of Speech: Schemes and Tropes.

Nasser, Sura. (2018). A Study of Stylistics Deviations in Maya Angelou Poems.

Aslam S., Aslam B. Mukhtar P & Sarfaraz A. (2014). Stylistics Analysis of the Poem
“Bereft” By Robert Frost.

Crystal, D. (2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of English Language. 2nd ed.

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Glaing, S. P., & Espeland, W. (2005). Low intensity phonological awareness training in
a preschool classroom for children with communication impairments. Journal
of Communication Disorders, 38(1), 65-82.