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A stylistic analysis of Montage

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 3L The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies
Vol 16 (2) 2010

A stylistic analysis of Montage

Shirley N. Dita
De la Salle University
[email protected]

Abstract

This study presents a stylistic analysis of Ophelia Alcantara-Dimalanta‟s Montage by

providing a syntactic and lexical investigation of the poem. It attempts to investigate the
style and the language of the poem by focusing on the overall structure of the poem and
the grammatical structure of the sentences thereby leading to a deeper understanding of
the text. The analysis focuses on the syntax, specifically the structure of sentences, and
the vocabulary of the poem. Some pedagogical implications re then drawn towards the
concluding remarks of the study.

Keywords: Stylistics; lexis; literary text; syntax; vocabulary.

Introduction

As has been well established, a language - centered approach is necessary for the study of

literature since all literature exists only in and through language. The central purpose of a

linguistic analysis of a literary text is, as Sopher (1976) stresses, to demonstrate both

what has been communicated and how it has been communicated. Hence, a linguistic

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analysis that claims to explore meaning must take into account every factor contributing

to meaning: organization, vocabulary, syntax, morphology, phonology, among others.

The purpose of this paper is to present one way of discovering meaning of a

literary piece, that is, a syntactic and lexical analysis of one of Ophelia Alcantara-

Dimalanta‟s poems: Montage (see Appendix).

Style, as Traugott and Pratt (1980) point out, is the writer‟s choice of employing

certain structures over others which are available in the language. It means choosing to

say an idea in a particular form when it could be said in another, more readily

understandable way. This choice, therefore, is the form of expression adapted by the

author. Furthermore, they explain that style constitutes both what is chosen and what is

not. This includes “selecting or not selecting deviant structures” (p. 33).

One aspect of the language of literature is deviance. Traugott and Pratt (1980)

define deviance as a means of departure from linguistic norms. It is characterized as a

peculiar fashion of phrasing sentences to achieve ambiguous referent or meaning. For this

reason, poetry is distinct from the trite language of everyday conversations.For instance,

Keats, in Ode to a Nightingale, opted to say, „tender is the night‟, when he could have

said, The night is tender. Similarly, Cummings, in his poem love is more thicker than

forget, opted to say “it shall unbe” when he could have said, “it will cease to exist.”

These two demonstrate some forms of deviance: the former, of syntax, and the latter of

semantics. Deviance, as a style, is thus linked to the analysis of the grammar of the text.

Grammar-of-a-text refers to the linguistic options, which are syntactic, semantic,

phonological, and pragmatic systems, available for the poet. A writer can therefore

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utilize a standard or deviant structure in the first three systems. As Blake (1990)

suggests, “the best place to start is with syntax since this leads straight to the heart of a

text by exposing its structure” (p.11). In addition, Traugott and Pratt (1980) explain that,

“meaning is expressed by means of syntax” (p. 169). How the words are sequenced

together to create meaning is the writer‟s style. Likewise, Suzuki (2001) contends that

grammatical analyses are quite useful to see the author‟s style and main theme, as his

style is composed of various aspects of language. This view is further corroborated by

Link (2004) in his stylistic analysis of "Hills Like White Elephants”, where he argues

linguistic analysis enables us to see how, at the textual level, a literary piece can

manufacture such a rich interpretative web from seemingly gossamer texts.

Syntax, as Traugott and Platt (1980) describe, has something to do with the

surface as well as deep sentence structures of a poem. Whether a writer employs short,

simple sentences or lengthy, highly complicated ones are still a part of his style. They add

that “syntax does a great deal to support meanings, and sometimes even helps to create

them” (p. 177).

Shakespeare, for example, elaborates one sentence into eight lines in his Sonnet

129. The sonnet all in all consists of just two sentences. Conversely, Sandburg‟s The

Harbor uses recursive patterns of relative clauses in reduced and unreduced forms.

Semantics deals with the meaning of words. The vocabulary choice of the writer

also denotes his style. Whether the language of the poem is anarchaic, ordinary, or

highly-complicated all constitute the effect that he wants to put forward. After dealing

with the syntax and the structure of the sentence, the next most logical step is to explore

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the words used in the poem. Blake (1990) explains that in dealing with language, words

are the foundation of the interpretation of meaning.

Among the styles of utilizing vocabulary in a text are compounding and

functional shift. Compounding is the process which produces exotic and unusual words.

Compounds usually consist of two independent words while complex words consist of

one independent word and one affix (Blake, 1990). Functional shift, on the other hand,

refers to the change in function of a particular word, say, from noun to adjective, or from

adverb to noun. This deliberate shift from the conventional functions of words

contributes to the complexity and ambiguity that the author wants to effect in the poem.

Blake (1980) conjectures that there is an advantage of using compounds as the

meaning becomes more transparent since the compounds promote echoes of the word.

Hence, compounds give more direct meaning that complex words do. For instance, the

word „incarnadine‟ in Shakespeare‟s Macbeth, „The multitudinous seas incarnadine‟ – an

invented compound of the word which is either red-making or all-reddening would be

more readily understandable than the complex word incarnadine.

To fully understand the possible deeper meaning of the poem brought about by its

syntax and vocabulary, I seek answers to the following questions:

1. What is the physical structure of the poem?

2. What are the sentence structures of the poem?

3. What syntactic deviances are exhibited by the poem and what meanings are

revealed by these deviances?

4. What does the vocabulary of the poem reveal?

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Methodology

Focus of Analysis

The present study provides an integrative, bottom-up stylistic analysis of the poem. It

attempts to investigate the style and the language of the poem by focusing on the over-all

structure of the poem and the grammatical structure of the sentences thereby leading to a

deeper understanding of the text. The analysis focuses on the syntax, specifically the

structure of sentences, and the vocabulary of the poem.

As for the sentence structure, I adapted Blake‟s (1990) conventions of clause

elements which are: i) subject, it refers to the one that performs the verb; ii) predicator,

the verb performed by the subject; iii) object, the receiver of the action of the verb which

could be a person or a thing in the sentence besides the subject; iv) complement, it refers

back to the subject; v) adjunct, refers to anything that does not belong to the first four

categories.

There are two aspects of the poem‟s vocabulary that are investigated: the use of

compounding, and thereby complicating; and the use of functional shift. The different

meanings of the major, as well as minor, lexical items, and the instances of ambiguity are

also explored. The deviances of the poem vis-à-vis the underlying meanings of these

deviances are subsumed in the discussion of the grammatical structure. In rare cases of

vocabulary ambiguity, the discussion also goes with the explanation of the grammatical

structure of the poem.

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The Poem

Ophelia Alcantara-Dimalanta‟s „Montage‟ (1974) is a poem about a career woman who

describes her transition, and subsequently her preparation, from a fun-filled weekend to a

pressure-laden Monday. Among Dimalanta‟s poems, “Montage” is the most critically

acclaimed and seems to have received the most attention, probably because of its non-

conventionality in terms of form, syntax, and semantics, among others.

Results and Discussion

The Physical Structure

The poem consists of 33 lines and is divided into two parts: the first part has 26 lines and

the second part seven. The first part is clearly longer and heavier than the second part.

This division of the poem is a clear departure from the stanzaic norms of English poetry.

In addition, the poem does not follow any rhyming pattern neither does it exhibit a

particular pattern in meter. The lines predominantly consist of ten syllables; of the 33

lines, 12 consist of ten syllables. The shortest lines (2, 4, 17, and 29) each consist of 7

syllables and the longest line (20) consists of 13 syllables. The 33-line poem all-in-all

consists of 219 words.

Table 1. The physical structure of Montage

Sentence Number of lines Number of words

1 1.75 12

2 3.25 21

3 2.5 18

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 4 9.75 68

5 8.75 50

6 7 40

Total 33 209

All in all, the poem consists of only six sentences: the first three are

comparatively shorter than the next three sentences. The first sentence is stretched in one

and half lines, the second in three in half lines, and the third in two and a half lines. The

fourth sentence, the longest of all, is expanded in more than ten lines. The fifth sentence

is extended to eight and a half lines while the final sentence to seven lines. The

arrangement of the sentences therefore seems to suggest that short sentences are paired

off with long ones.

The Sentence Structure

The opening sentence, although a compound, has a relatively simple structure of Subject-

Predicator (SP).

1 Monday jolts and she bogs down, a ragbag

2 Splayed off at tangents.

The subjects of the two clauses, Monday and she, contain the theme or the topic

of the poem, that is, the coming of Monday to the woman. The two independent clauses

are adjoined by the coordinate conjunction and. Separated by a comma, a metaphor a

ragbag splayed off at tangents follows immediately. This is an absolute participial

construction in which the noun phrase a ragbag acts as the subject of the participle

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splayed off. Participles are not finite parts of verb so they cannot act as predicators.

Hence, this unit cannot be interpreted as independent clause but rather a qualifier of the

subject of the second independent clause which is in the form of a participle, here the

nominative pronoun she. This unit can be interpreted as she, just like a ragbag splayed off

at tangents, bogs down. The unit can be best interpreted as a participial adjective which is

separated from its head, she, hence it encourages ambiguity as the referent is not easily

recognizable. The author‟s choice of ragbag for a direct comparison with she seems to

suggest what type of woman is she in the poem. Since ragbags are often perceived as

carriers of hodgepodge of stuff, they project the image of flexibility and strength. Just

like the woman in the poem, ragbags are maximally utilized and are often thrown away at

the end of the day. The metaphor thus describes how the woman looks at herself on

weekends: literally thrown off on the bed.

2 Windows
3 To the outside and flecks of faces
4 Spring the morning clear at her
5 To set her into her old dimensions.

The second sentence consists of just a single clause but with an inverted order of

subject and object. Occupying the subject position is the compound Windows to the

outside and flecks of faces; windows and flecks as the head nouns and to the outside and

of faces as adjuncts of the head nouns. The verb spring is used here as a transitive;

hence, the noun phrase the morning functions as the object. Seemingly, there is a direct

object inversion in the structure of the sentence. The dynamic verb spring usually

functions as intransitive but it is used otherwise here. Consequently, the verb spring

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gives a more decisive meaning as though the windows and the faces have deliberate

intentions of perking up the morning. Instead of saying therefore that Morning springs

clearly to her by the windows to the outside and to the flecks of faces, which is the

standard fashion, it is those faces and windows that woke her up to start a new day. The

pattern accordingly follows Subject-Predicator-Object (SPO) rather than SP. The adjunct

to set her into her old dimensions refers to verb spring which means that the emergence

of the morning reminds her of her routine, of her Monday obligations, and probably of

her work.

6 Piece by piece she puts on eight o'clock;

7 Pillows and bedcovers in a tumble pat
8 Her in place.

The third sentence is composed of two independent clauses conjoined by a

semicolon instead of a conjunction. The first clause, Piece by piece she puts on eight

o’clock, appears to follow an SP pattern on the surface structure. However, the fronting

of piece by piece evokes a deeper structure. The syntax of the line suggests that the

pronoun she is the subject; the idiomatic verb puts on is the predicator; and eight o’clock

is the direct object. Eight o’clock is an adverb but functions otherwise here, apparently as

a noun since it is the object of the verb. The phrase, used as a noun here, symbolizes the

official start of work hour and thus ultimately represents the day – Monday. Piece by

piece, on the other hand, functions as the adverbial adjunct of the verb. The fronting of

piece by piece gives the impression that there are several „pieces‟ or aspects she has to

put on or prepare for the day. More than just vanity – outfit, jewelry, and make-up, she

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puts on her complete psychological condition to the coming of Monday. And this is on

top of other pressures like deadlines or work that need immediate attention.

The second clause is parallel with the second sentence as it also exhibits direct

object inversion. The compound bed and pillows and the adjunct of manner in a tumble

occupy the subject position. On the other hand, the dynamic verb pat functions as a

transitive verb, the pronoun her functions as the object and is therefore in the genitive

case and not in the nominative, and the prepositional phrase in place functions as adjunct

to the verb pat. The structure of the sentence is again deviant in the sense that the normal

arrangement of words would have been She pats the pillows and bedcovers, which are in

tumble, in place, as what we usually do upon rising from bed. The inversion of object

seems to suggest that it is those bedcovers and pillows that pat her in place. It is the bed,

as represented by the bedcovers and pillows, which lulls her to extend her sleep –

probably due to the previous night‟s gaiety. The adjunct in tumble therefore does not

refer to the bedcovers and pillows but to her. Seemingly, she had been in complete

topsy-turvy from exhaustion prior to Monday morning.

8 The clearest cutglass

9 Of grapefruit juice teetering on a silver
10 Tray for breakfast-in-bed exigencies
11 (Both for effect and effectivity)
12 Is for a fact but fictive in the mind
13 Which holds the fleeing moment longer,
14 Stalls the stupor of the previous spree,
15 Images of her beautiful in blank spaces
16 Wandering truantlike in private regions
17 Of the night, wisps of clouds jammed
18 In one wicked corner of sleep.

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 The fourth sentence, which is the longest in the poem, consists of three clauses

but of several adjuncts. The first clause is pretty simple in structure as it follows an SPC

pattern but it appears to be complicated since the subject alone is stretched out in four

lines.

The clearest cutglass

Of grapefruit juice teetering on a silver
Tray for breakfast-in-bed exigencies
(Both for effect and effectivity)

Occupying the subject position is a heavy noun group made up of different

groups. The head noun is cutglass; preceding it are the determiner the and the superlative

adjective modifier clearest; the prepositional phrase of grapefruit juice functions as

adjunct qualifier to the head noun; teetering is a participial adjunct; the prepositional

phrase on a silver tray is an adjunct of place; for breakfast-in-bed exigencies is an adjunct

of causality; and finally, the expression enclosed in parentheses both for effect and

effectivity is a qualifier of the adjunct that precedes it. The verb used here is a stative verb

is and the complement for a fact but fictive in the mind takes a prepositional phrase

structure rather than a noun phrase. It is further compounded in the object of the

preposition (fact but fictive). The expression in the mind is an adjunct dependent on

fictive. The whole clause, as by itself complex and ambiguous, suggests the same effect:

of complexity and ambiguity. It seems to suggest that she cannot afford a decent

breakfast that morning due to time constraint and hence, a breakfast in bed is emergent.

The breakfast of the woman, therefore, is composed plainly of fruit juice which is placed

on a tray. The complement for a fact but fictive in the mind seems to refer to the idea of

having breakfast in bed.

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 There are two possible interpretations for this string of words. First, it was a fact

because it is what is apparent to her at the moment. Second, it is what she has been

wishing for quite some time. However, it remains to be fictive in the mind since the idea

has never materialized, more so during Monday mornings. The adjunct both for effect

and effectivity, herein enclosed in parenthesis, all the more confirms her wish to have

breakfast-in-bed. Since having a breakfast in bed usually insinuates romantic ambience

(as it is supposed to be served by a loved one), this is the effect she is hoping to have.

And always, the idea of having breakfast in bed is very effective in providing the desired

inspiration or motivation.

The cutglass in the subject position plays an important role in the whole poem.

The choice of the poetess to use the compounded cutglass instead of just an ordinary

glass is deliberate. Apparently, the concept of montage is subsumed in cutglass; it being

a glass ornamented with patterns cut into its surfaces. It is through the cut surfaces of the

cutglass that the montage appears. Hence, the next series of clauses describe the cutglass

as it exhibits the montage of the woman‟s weekend.

The clause which holds the fleeing moment longer is introduced by a subordinate

conjunction which, the verb holds takes the form of transitive, the object the fleeing

moment comes with a determiner and a participial modifier, and the adverb longer

functions as an adjunct to the verb. Separated by a comma comes the second predicator of

the preceding clause introduced by the dynamic verb stalls which is transitive here. The

object stupor is preceded by a determiner and the prepositional phrase of the previous

spree is a modifier adjunct of the object. This whole clause appears to be a descriptive

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qualifier of the head noun cutglass. It is the idea of having breakfast in bed (where the

cutglass contains the grapefruit juice for breakfast) which halted her state of reduced

sensibility about Sunday night‟s diversion. She wants to cleave longer to the glee and

laughter of the previous night, which she describes as rather fleeing or passing swiftly.

Yet, these scenes just appear in montage as the reality of the coming of Monday is there.

And since this clause is embedded in the matrix clause The cutglass is fictive, the

succeeding clauses are still linked to the cutglass. As the clauses are intertwined, so is the

juxtaposition of images, i.e. the montage, seen through the cutglass. The string of words

Images of her beautiful in blank spaces has four classes of noun groups occupying the

subject position: images is the head noun of the subject, of her is its prepositional

modifier adjunct, and beautiful is an adjectival modifier of the head noun images which

should precede it but is rather positioned after the adjunct in this structure, and in blank

spaces is an adjunct of place dependent to the head noun. This series is a subject to the

participle wandering, truantlike is an adverb adjunct, and the two prepositional phrases in

private regions and of the night are adverb adjuncts of wandering. This clause is one

image or scene that she sees in the montage. Since the participle refers to the images, it

seems to suggest that the woman certainly had a night full of enjoyment.

The writer‟s choice of the compound truantlike is an assertion of the word being

an adjective. Truant, which means absent, is by itself an adjective, attaching an adjective-

forming suffix –like makes the word „more‟ adjective in effect. Hence, the woman must

have spent the night absentmindedly of the next day‟s obligations. The next expression

exhibits parallel construction as the former. The noun phrase wisps of clouds functions as

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subject to the participle jammed, while the two prepositional phrases in one wicked

corner and of sleep are adverbial adjuncts to the participle. This is another picture that

she sees in the montage. These two clauses both conjure fondness of the previous night‟s

leisure, as though the woman refuses to retire to bed for the night is too good to miss.

18 She hoards
19 Them like a child at play, triumphantly
20 Pieces them into a single total perspective:
21 Splayed off tatters of Sunday, a dark
22 Undiscipline of clouds settled right
23 Into this alarming set-up environing
24 Her Monday-world, jolted suddenly
25 Into the teeth of everyday people
26 And cluttering sounds of slapdash.

The fifth sentence contains two independent clauses. The first clause exhibits an

SPO pattern where the subject is the nominative pronoun she; the predicator is

compound: hoards and pieces but adjoined by a comma instead of a coordinate

conjunction and, and the object for both predicators takes the form of a pronoun in the

genitive case them. The first verb takes an adverbial adjunct like a child at play for the

verb hoards while the second verb takes two adverbial adjuncts: triumphantly which

comes before the verb and into a single total perspective after it. A colon separates these

adjuncts to the next unit of expression: the participial modifier splayed off tatters of

Sunday. The separate structure of the compound predicator seems to suggest that the

participial modifier that appears after the adjunct into a single total perspective and not to

the adjunct of the first verb. Hence, this participial construction is a qualifier of the object

of the preposition perspective. It could be interpreted that the qualifier takes the form of

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an apposition since the noun tatters functions as the head of the subject tatters of Sunday.

The participle splayed off functions as modifier of the head noun tatters.

The object them is anaphoric in nature as the referent has been previously

mentioned - the images in line 15. As such, the woman clutches to the images or the

remnants of the night‟s frivolity as though not wanting to head off to the scheduled

itinerary for the day. The act of hoarding the images is likened to a child who would not

release from grips a toy that he enjoys at a particular time. For somebody who is very

sluggish in going back to a dull, monotonous, not to mention tedious, work – she would

surely seize the momentary delight of the past. This she now considers tatters of Sunday.

These tatters, however, are splayed off in every corner of her room. Probably, it is the

montage that she sees in the cutglass which reminds her of the miscellany of the previous

night.

The next series of clauses is another set of montage: not of the past - the

merriment of Sunday, but of the present - the displeasure of Monday. The subject takes a

rather heavy noun phrase a dark undiscipline of clouds settled right into this alarming

set-up. As the syntax suggests, the head noun is undiscipline since a determiner a and a

modifier dark appear before it as opposed to the more popular form of this word in ed

participle acting as modifier of a noun. The functional shift or the deliberate omission of

what would have been the noun phrase „arrangement‟ or „assembly‟ all the more

highlights the „disorderliness‟ of the clouds that particular day. The qualifiers take

different forms. First, of clouds is a prepositional phrase; second, settled right into this

alarming set-up is a participial phrase composed of the participle settled, the adverbial

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adjunct right, the prepositional phrase into this alarming set-up composed of a

preposition into, demonstrative this, participial modifier alarming, and the compound

noun set-up. This whole clause presents a picture of an unwelcome Monday as the

following words evoke: dark, undiscipline, clouds, alarming and set-up. A perception of

Monday as a set-up gives therefore a smack of stagnancy. The next clause provides

another picture of the montage: a description of a Monday.

The clause is introduced by the particle jolted; two adjuncts follow: the first is just

one word, the adverbial suddenly and the second is a prepositional phrase into the teeth.

However, the object of the preposition teeth takes a compound prepositional phrase

qualifier: of everyday people and cluttering sounds of slapdash. The latter is still

complicated by itself since the head noun sounds comes with a participial modifier

cluttering which precedes it and a prepositional qualifier of slapdash. This whole clause

again describes how unwelcome Monday is, as suggested by the words: jolted, suddenly,

teeth, cluttering and slapdash. The compound slapdash functions here as a noun but

originally functions as either adjective or adverb. This is another instance of functional

shift.

The five sentences embodied in the first part of the poem all describe the jolting,

not just coming, of Monday to her. The montage presented here speaks of the two

extreme worlds of the woman: Sunday night and Monday morning.

27 She exudes it now becomingly

28 As she glides and putters about
29 By turns, spreads it as a scent
30 Ambiguously enwombing her, her form
31 Dissolved in semi-tones, nameless jewel

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 32 Durably ensphered in mist, constantly reborn,
33 Solid, whole in ever renewing shades.

The final sentence, spread in seven lines, appears to be complex in structure – that

is, a combination of one independent and one dependent clause. Chunking the clauses

further, the independent clause She exudes it now becomingly is composed of the

nominative pronoun she as its subject, the dynamic verb exudes as the transitive

predicator, the nominative pronoun it as the object, and the two one-word adverbial

adjuncts: now and becomingly. Hence, this sentence follows an SPO pattern. The

referent of the pronoun it is rather ambiguous as the referent is not easily recoverable in

the text. The embedded clause is introduced by a subordinate conjunction as and the

subject is parallel with the subject of the first clause – she. The predicator takes a

compound structure: glides and putters about and the adverbial prepositional adjunct by

turns refers to the compound verb.

The final sentence describes another set of montage: this time, a picture of herself

who is ready to face the Monday world. The readiness is exemplified by the words

exudes, now, and becomingly. Although she still putters once in a while (which normally

happens to anyone, not only during Mondays, but almost every day), the tone of the

whole clause radiates optimism and strength. This positive outlook of the coming of

Monday is further affirmed in the next strings of words. Following closely is another

dynamic verb which appears after a comma – spreads. This can be interpreted as the

second predicator of the independent clause. Hence, the independent clause is She

exudes it now becomingly and spreads it as a scent ambiguously enwombing her. Now it

185
can be said that the parallelism of the two clauses does not end in the use of nominative

pronoun for the subject but also in the use of compound verbs for the predicators.

Apparently, the embedded clause as she glides and putters about by turns can be

interpreted as an adverbial time adjunct of the verb exudes and must therefore appear

close to it. The simile as a scent ambiguously enwombing her refers to the it in line 29.

Here, a scent is the noun phrase functioning as the subject to the participle enwombing

with an adverbial adjunct ambiguously. Just like the first it, the second it also has an

ambiguous referent. The next series of units are qualifiers of the object her which still

contain embedded clauses. The noun phrase qualifier her form functions as apposition to

the object her. The next series of embedded clauses are modifiers of the noun phrase her

form which ultimately refers to her. First, the participial phrase dissolved in semi-tones is

consequently the qualifier of the head noun form. The compound semi-tones appears to

be the outfit of the woman. But instead of saying clothes in half tones, the writer opted

semi-tones which is used as a noun, not an adjective. The adjunct of the participle

dissolved is rather compound which are separated by comma instead of conjunction: in

semi-tones and nameless jewel. Matching the outfit of the woman must be a set of

baubles as suggested by nameless. The whole participle dissolved in semi-tones and

nameless jewel therefore refers to the woman who is now dressed for work. Second, the

string durably ensphered in mist is also a participial qualifier of the noun phrase her form,

where durably is the adverbial adjunct of the participle ensphered; while in mist is its

prepositional adjunct. The whole clause refers to the form in line 30 and is in consonance

with the previous description of her – ambiguously enwombing her.

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 The lexical choices such as enwombing and ensphered, among others, create

ambiguity and vagueness. But as Channell (2000) notes, such vagueness is in fact an

advantage. Similarly, Song (2009) opines that when a literary piece is saturated with

vague words and phrases, this triggers imagination and the piece is then open to diverse

interpretations.

As the line suggests, the woman is enclosed with mist, of the scent, of the image

of being solid and whole. Third, constantly reborn, solid, whole in ever renewing shades

is an adjective qualifier where constantly is the adverbial adjunct of the series of one-

word adjectives reborn, solid and whole. Finally, the prepositional phrase in ever

renewing shades functions as an adverbial adjunct to the series of adjectives.

The second part, as can be seen in the structure of the whole poem, is the

culmination of the poem. If the first part speaks of the transition from Sunday evening to

Monday dawn, the final part speaks of the „now‟ of Monday. Hence, the two object

pronouns it in lines 27 and 29 refer to the image being described in lines 32 and 33,

constantly reborn, solid, whole in ever renewing shades.

As can be seen, the recursion of embedded clauses highlights the complexity and

detail of the scene, giving a more profound perspective of the description. If the

complicated structure is paraphrased, just like the way I did in some items, it would

undoubtedly destroy the effects that Dimalanta would like to underscore.

187
Concluding remarks

The 33-line poem is composed of six sentences which are either compound-complex or

complex-complex. The first line describes how the woman looks at herself at the onset of

Monday. The second line tells how she is awakened in that Monday morning. The third

line expresses her difficulty of getting up to her feet to start the day. The fourth line

speaks of the montage of her Sunday evening while the fifth line of her transition from

Sunday evening to Monday evening. Finally, the sixth and the last line illustrate a real

„she‟ as she faces Monday morning.

The nature of the deviance of Dimalanta‟s poem can be linked to the extensive

subordination and clause chaining in the sentence structure. The complexity, both of the

structure of sentences and the words, is therefore the stylistic option of the poetess. In the

introduction of Linguistic Guide to English Poetry, Leech (1969) firstly distinguishes

poetic language with „ordinary‟ language. He writes “poetic language may violate or

deviate from the generally observed rules of the language in many different ways, some

obvious, some subtle” (p.5). Dimalanta‟s deliberate use of deviant expressions is part of

the effect that she wants to express in her poem. Hence, a detailed analysis of the syntax

of the poem helped unlocked the ambiguous referents and deeper meaning of the

complex clauses. Furthermore, an explanation of the words used elucidates the effect and

meaning that the writer wants to put forward.

This stylistic analysis of Montage, specifically syntactic and lexical, provides a

more objective and more profound comprehension of the underlying multiple meanings

of the poem. Since the grammatical structure of the poem is ambiguous, perhaps on the

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initial discussion of the poem, it is but logical and appropriate to chunk the poem into its

physical, and eventually, into its sentential structure. The discussion of the meaning of

some strange words also helped in the understanding of the poem.

As for the pedagogical implications, Clark (1987) opines that a stylistic analysis

of a literary piece indicates that ESL-EFL learners can have even greater access to

understanding discourse in general, and literature in particular, by observing closely how

meaning arises according to use. Additionally, Akyel (1995) asserts that stylistic

analyses help EFL learners develop an awareness of how language is used to produce a

particular meaning, as well as gain confidence in reaching and accounting for their own

interpretations of a literary piece.

Endnote:

The explanations of the lexical items in the poem are almost all based on

www.yourdictionary.com

References

Akyel, A. (1995). Stylistic analysis of poetry: A perspective from an initial

training course in TEFL. TESL Canada Journal 13(1), 63-73.
Blake, N. F. (1990). An introduction to the language of Literature. London:Macmillan
Channell, J. 2000. Vague language. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language
and Education Press House.
Clark, M. S. 1987. A Way in: A Stylistic Analysis of Poetry. The English
Teacher, 16.
http://www.melta.org.my/ET/1987/main9.html]
Dimalanta, O. A. 2004. The Ophelia Alcantara Dimalanta Reader Vol. 1:
Selected Poetry. Philippines: UST Press.
Leech, G. N. 1969, A linguistic guide to English poetry, London: Longman.
Link, A. 2004. Staking everything on it: A stylistic analysis of linguistic patterns

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 in Hills like White Elephants. The Hemingway Review, 23(2), 66-74.
Song, S. 2009. A stylistic analysis of “Miss Brill” by Katherine Mansfield.
Review of European Studies, 1(2), 117-123.
Sopher, H. 1976. Stylistic analysis of literary material. ELT Journal, 31(1), 63
-71. doi: 10.1093/elt/XXXI.1.63
Suzuki, R. 2001. A stylistic analysis and interpretation of Thomas Hardy‟s The
Going. Paper read at The 44th Annual Meeting of the Thomas Hardy Society of
Japan, Chuo University, Tokyo.
Traugott, E. and Pratt, M. L. 1980. Linguistics for students of Literature. NY:
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Appendix

MONTAGE

1 Monday jolts and she bogs down, a ragbag

2 Splayed off at tangents. Windows
3 To the outside and flecks of faces
4 Spring the morning clear at her
5 To set her into her old dimensions.
6 Piece by piece she puts on eight o'clock;
7 Pillows and bedcovers in a tumble pat
8 Her in place. The clearest cutglass
9 Of grapefruit juice teetering on a silver
10 Tray for breakfast-in-bed exigencies
11 (Both for effect and effectivity)
12 Is for a fact but fictive in the mind
13 Which holds the fleeing moment longer,
14 Stalls the stupor of the previous spree,
15 Images of her beautiful in blank spaces
16 Wandering truantlike in private regions
17 Of the night, wisps of clouds jammed
18 In one wicked corner of sleep. She hoards
19 Them like a child at play, triumphantly
20 Pieces them into a single total perspective:
21 Splayed off tatters of Sunday, a dark
22 Undiscipline of clouds settled right
23 Into this alarming set-up environing
24 Her Monday-world, jolted suddenly
25 Into the teeth of everyday people
26 And cluttering sounds of slapdash.

27 She exudes it now becomingly

28 As she glides and putters about

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 29 By turns, spreads it as a scent
30 Ambiguously enwombing her, her form
31 Dissolved in semi-tones, nameless jewel
32 Durably ensphered in mist, constantly reborn,
33 Solid, whole in ever renewing shades.

(Ophelia Alcantara-Dimalanta, 1974, line numbers added)

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