An analysis of the metaphor in anne bradstreet’s poems

2018 – 2020 (1) MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY HOÀNG THỊ HỒNG NHUNG ENGLISH LANGUAGE M.A THESIS AN ANALYSIS OF THE METAPHOR IN ANNE BRADSTREET’S POEMS (Phân tích yếu tố ẩn dụ thơ Anne Bradstreet) HOANG THI HONG NHUNG Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Hanoi - 2020 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI OPEN UNIVERSITY M.A THESIS AN ANALYSIS OF THE METAPHOR IN ANNE BRADSTREET’S POEMS (Phân tích yếu tố ẩn dụ thơ Anne Bradstreet) HOANG THI HONG NHUNG Field: English Language Code: 8.22.02.01 Supervisor: Dr Tran Thi Le Dung Hanoi - 2020 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I, the undersigned, hereby certify my authority of the study project report entitled AN ANALYSIS OF THE METAPHOR IN ANNE BRADSTREET’S POEMS submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in English Language Except where the reference is indicated, no other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text of the thesis Hanoi, 2020 Hoang Thi Hong Nhung Approved by SUPERVISOR (Signature and full name) Date: ……………… i ACKNOWLEDMENTS A completed thesis would not be done without any assistance Therefore, the author who conducted this research gratefully gives the acknowledgement to their support and motivation during the time of doing this research First of all, from bottom of my heart, I would like to express my endless thanks and gratefulness to my supervisor, Mrs Tran Thi Le Dung, Dr Her kindly support and continuous advice went through the process of completion of my thesis Her encouragement and comments had significantly enriched and improved my work Without her motivation and instructions, the thesis would have been impossible to be done effectively My special thanks approve to my parents for their endless love, care and motivations for the whole of my life I also would like to explain my thanks to my siblings, brothers, sisters for their support and care all the time As last, my deep thanks come to all the lecturers at the Faculty of English who gave me a chance to carry out this thesis ii ABSTRACT The aims of this research are to analyze metaphor and the implicit meaning of metaphor in the poems Moreover, the writer identifies word or phrases in the sentence according to the type of metaphor to make it easier and understand the implied meaning which contained in word or phrase in the poems In analyzing the data, the researcher used metaphor theory that was introduced by Larson Based on the theory, the metaphor was divided into types: there were anthropomorphic metaphor, animal metaphor, metaphor from concrete to abstract and synesthetic metaphor In analyzing the meaning of metaphor, the researcher used Larson theory Based on Larson, meaning divided into two kinds, explicit and implicit meaning In this research, the researcher only analyzed the implicit meaning of metaphor This research was library research because all of the research was done in library This research design was descriptive qualitative because the researcher applied the data in the terms words, phrases and sentences The researcher applied documentation technique to collect the data This meant that in this research the document mostly used The primary data of this research was sentences that contain of metaphor in the poems of Anne Bradstreet In this research the researcher applied genetic stylistic approach to analyze the data because the researcher analyzed language styles focused on metaphorical expression Among those metaphorical expression, in this case were anthropomorphic metaphor, metaphor from concrete to abstract and synesthetic metaphor, the researcher concluded that the author mostly used implicit meaning of metaphor in her poem Key: language, metaphor, Larson, Anne Bradstreet, anthropomorphic, synesthetic, concrete to abstract iii LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES Table The metaphor used in the first poem 35 Table The metaphor used in the second poem 36 Table The metaphor’s meaning used in the first poem 37 Table The metaphor’s meaning used in the second poem 39 Table The metaphor used in two poems 42 Table The metaphor’s meaning used in two poems 45 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of originality i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii List of tables and figures iv Table of contents v Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study 1.2 Aims and objectives of the study 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Methods of the study 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Significance of the study 1.7 Structure of the study Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Previous studies 2.2 Literature 2.3 Poem 10 2.3.1 Definition of poem 10 2.3.2 Elements of poem 11 2.3.2.1 Imagery 11 2.3.2.2 Rhythm 11 2.3.2.3 Tone 12 2.3.3 Form of poem 12 v 2.4 Structuralism 13 2.5 Figurative language 13 2.5.1 The Essence of stylistic 13 2.5.2 The definition of figurative language 14 2.5.3 Kinds of figurative language 15 2.6 Metaphor 17 2.6.1 Preceding of theories of metaphor 17 2.6.2 Definition of metaphor 18 2.6.2.1 Anthropomorphic metaphor 20 2.6.2.2 Animal metaphor 20 2.6.2.3 Metaphor from concrete to abstract 20 2.6.2.4 Synesthetic metaphor 20 2.7 Biography of Anne Bradstreet 21 2.8 Summary 22 Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 24 3.1 Research approach 24 3.2 Methods of the study 25 3.3 Data collection and data analysis 25 3.3.1 Data collection 25 3.3.2 Data analysis 25 3.3.2.1 Data reduction 26 3.3.2.2 Data display 27 3.3.2.3 Conclusion drawing 27 3.4 Summary 27 Chapter 4: THE METAPHOR IN ANNE BRADSTREET’S POEMS 28 vi 4.1 Poem presentation 28 4.1.1 To My Dear and Loving Husband 28 4.1.2 A Letter to Her Husband Absent upon Public Employment 32 4.2 The kinds of metaphor of the selected poems 34 4.2.1 To My Dear and Loving Husband 35 4.2.2 A Letter to Her Husband Absent upon Public Employment 36 4.3 The meaning of metaphor of the selected poems 37 4.3.1 To My Dear and Loving Husband 37 4.3.2 A Letter to Her Husband Absent upon Public Employment 39 4.4 Summary 42 Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 50 5.1 Recapitulation 50 5.2 Concluding remarks 51 5.3 Limitation of the research 52 5.4 Recommendations 52 5.4.1 Teachers 52 5.4.2 Students 52 5.4.3 Further researchers 52 REFERENCES 55 APPENDIX 59 vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale for the study Language is an important aspect of human life since language is used to communicate with each other According to Leech and Short (2007), a language is a vehicle communication whereby one person conveys message to another for a range of different purposes, such as informing, ordering, persuading and reassuring Without language human civilization would have remained impossibility Rousseau and John (1966) said that language can be divided into two groups: ordinary language and literary language Ordinary language refers to the words and phrases we use in day to day communication and conversation It is meant to be easily understood, and it generally does not utilize complex vocabulary Unlike ordinary language, literary language is the language used by the poets, writers and scholars; it is more artistic from than ordinary language Tonner and Whittestome (2003) said that literature is an art form, like painting sculpture, music, drama and the dance Most people assume literature is an important part of education Literature can introduce student’s ability to foster critical, reading, build valuable skills and expand student’s worldviews Literature is divided into three major types These types are poems, prose and drama From those genres, the researcher can choose the poem as the object analysis, not just because the poem is always a part of educational material in English language class, but also the poem is the important thing for student’s reading and writing skills The poem also opens venues for student’s speaking and listening skills According to Kennedy and Dana (2005) considered that poem is piece of writing arranged in lines, usually with regular rhythm and often with a pattern of rhymes Poem is the expression of heart voice and strong feeling that is written in beautiful staza or and expressed with style and motion suitable with the content so that it is performed and listened beautifully Poetry is one of the oldest forms of literature According to Aristoteles (1902) and Tomlinson (1999), poetry is the expression of ideas and feelings through a rhythmical composition of imaginative and beautiful words selected for their sonorous effects Poetry can be studied from its structure and its elements, given that the poem is a structured composed of various elements and means of allegory This Table 6: The metaphor’s meaning used in two poems The poem Line To My Dear and I prize thy love more Loving Husband than whole Mines of gold Meaning His love is worth far more to her than any amount of money could ever be worth Or all the riches that the East doth hold My love is such that Rivers cannot quench, She values the human feeling of love in connection and commitment with another person far more than she could ever value any amount of material wealth Love looks like river that is very deep ,so it cannot relieve thirst (Her love is so deep) Thy love is such I can no way repay She reiterates her thought that his love is deeper than what she could ever return by saying 10 The heavens reward She prays to God that He thee manifold, I pray will bless her husband in reward for the way he has loved his wife 45 A Letter to My My joy, my magazine, Husband Absent upon of earthly store Public Employment He is everything So many steps, head Their distance is like that from the heart to sever from the “head to the heart.” There is a whole neck in between but if that was taken away, (if it was “sever[ed]”), then they could “be together.” These two words “head” and “heart” also speak to the way that her passion is allconsuming If but a neck, soon should we be together The two of them are inseparable, and so the narrator struggles to understand how they can exist so far apart I like the Earth this season, mourn in black, It also depicts the idea of the warmth and light Earth gets from the Sun, “mourn in black” is a sharp contrast as without Sun there is no light which is expressed both metaphorically and literally, it points towards the darkness or night and mourning 46 My Sun is gone so far She resembles her distance from her husband in's zodiac, as far as Sun is from the Earth She also expresses the fact that her husband is “in's zodiack.” 10 His warmth such fridged colds did cause to She also describes her sexual longings and needs melt with referring to her “chilled limbs” which now become frozen and senseless with waiting for him for so long and now she felt desperate and she wants her husband to return to her 11.My chilled limbs now Her soul is brittle numbed lie forlorn 12.Return; return, sweet Sol, from Capricorn His return from “Capricorn” illustrates the distance as the farthest because Capricorn is the southernmost sign and her husband being there is like sailing in Tropic of Capricorn 13 In this dead time, alas, what can I more 47 Sadness 14 Than view those fruits The fruits of her marriage which through thy heart I are that they had eight bore? children 16 True living pictures of their father's face Although they are not the same as having her husband around, the kids have some resemblance to their father She can see in their faces “Pictures of their Fathers face.” It is “strange” to her to see him and yet still be without him 20 I wish my Sun may never set, but burn Her husband is important in her life, and he will come back 21 Within the Cancer of my glowing breast, With the help of zodiacal allusions she conveys the emotions and warmth she felt when her husband is near her 24 Till nature's sad decree shall call thee hence Death will not only cause her great sorrow but indeed the end of the world 25 Flesh of thy flesh, bone of thy bone 48 She accepts that even though they are separated, they will always be united as one 26 I here, thou there, yet Although she has been through a lot, their love both but one has not been weakened 49 CHAPTER CONCLUSION 5.1 Recapitulation Metaphor is an integral part of everyone’s daily life, it is reflected in everyday language, even though many people not realize they employ metaphors in their communication or when they want to express thoughts Oxford English Dictionary defines “Metaphor” as: “A figure of speech in which a name or descriptive word or phrase is transferred to an object or action different from, but analogous to, that to which it is literally applicable; an instance of this, a metaphorical expression Something regarded as representative or suggestive of something else, esp as a material emblem of an abstract quality, condition, notion, etc.; a symbol, a token Freq with for, of.” In a nutshell, American cognitive linguists Lakoff and Johnson (2003) described metaphor as a language tool that is based on “understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.”(p.5) It is important to point out that a metaphorical comparison does not necessarily need to be based on similarity, therefore one can understand the relation of the metaphorical domains through conceptual metaphors, which will be discussed later in this work Lakoff and Johnson (2003) also added that in different cultures, people would view concepts or certain things differently, experience them differently, carry them out differently, and talk about them differently Metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon which shows the usage of figurative language, but metaphor also shows the concept of thinking and used widely pervasive in everyday life Therefore, the word choice of someone is not random, but it has a certain structure based on everyday experiences, background knowledge and culture Metaphors that are found in poems by Anne Bradstreet show that the use of metaphor is flexible The whole types of metaphor in poems are revealed through the analysis of metaphor theory by Larson They are anthropomorphic metaphor, animal metaphor, metaphor from concrete to abstract and synesthetic metaphor The types of metaphor are the most frequently used in the poems The meaning of metaphors also revealed from the analysis process which shows the condition of the country that has a bad condition, criticism to the government, where they not stand up for the 50 society It can be seen that metaphor has been used as a tool in communication in order to make such impression in the interpretation of the listeners Metaphor also shows the concept and point of view from this band toward the actual situation After the analysis has been done, the researcher concludes that the poem entitled “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and “A Letter to Her Husband Absent upon Public Employment”, by Anne Bradstreet consists of 21 lines that used metaphor In the two poems entitled “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and “A Letter to Her Husband Absent upon Public Employment” there are 21 lines that include metaphor 13 lines belong to abstract to concrete metaphor, lines belong to anthropomorphic metaphor and lines belong to synesthetic metaphor In the poem of “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, has loyalty meaning The next poem entitles “A Letter to Her Husband Absent upon Public Employment”, has longing and sadness meaning From the analysis, it can be concluded that metaphor has important roles in the poem Therefore, the poet uses words that have metaphor meaning in the poem It makes the poem more interesting to read, and also helps the readers to imagine the poem that the author has already given in the poem (lines) Hence, the imagination created by the reader is still in context of the poem 5.2 Concluding remarks This research analyzes how metaphors of love used in the Anne Bradstreet‘s poems Specifically, it analyzes the source domains used to convey love It can be indicated that the dominant types metaphor in two poems entitle “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, “A Letter to Her Husband Absent upon Public Employment”, by Anne Bradstreet are abstract to concrete metaphor The poet tries to describe her feeling, herself or something by comparing the objects from the abstract to concrete, that we have already known The poet also uses the anthropomorphic metaphor to describe her feeling, herself or something For students, this research is expected to be an example of analyzing metaphors of emotion particularly loves emotion For learners, it is also important to understand figurative language such as similes, hyperboles, metonyms, or even metaphors Moreover, they are often used in our live, especially metaphors As Lakoff and Johnson (1980) state that metaphors are actually used in our everyday 51 language and activity Thus, teachers who want to teach metaphors can use examples from anywhere such as domain of emotion Therefore, students can expand their understanding about metaphors 5.3 Limitations of the research It is known that in the poem, there are many sentences that are used by metaphor In this study, the researcher still has some limitations of the time, numbers of words in this thesis and the experience on this field, so the researcher uses to analyze a few types of metaphor that can be discussed in this thesis, such as: anthropomorphic metaphor, animal metaphor and metaphor from concrete to abstract Certainly, there are also other types of metaphor meaning found in the poems 5.4 Recommendations Based on the findings of the research, there are some recommendations which are addressed to teachers, learners, and future researchers Hopefully these recommendations contribute to the improvement of success in English learningteaching activities and the application of English 5.4.1 Teachers It is teacher’s duty to help their students understand the course materials Therefore, the teachers can use this study about metaphors of poems as a reference to improve student understanding about metaphors particularly conceptual metaphors Teachers can also give another example since the scope of metaphors is really wide It can be found in our daily life By giving examples, teachers can explain the theories clearly 5.4.2 Learners Metaphors are not just tools of poetic imagination They carry out the perception of our subconscious mind in what we say and what we By learning conceptual metaphors, students can understand how our mind and thought work in the matter of conceptualization What is more, Lakoff and Johnson (1980) point out that our thought and our action is basically a matter of conceptualization 5.4.3 Future researchers The researcher can suggest for future research that researchers can use different theories with the same data so that all types of metaphor meanings found in the poem can be discussed totally Researchers can also conduct research on different data with different theories so that readers know the difference of the kinds of metaphor in a 52 literary work such as poem, novel, and others As the result, the readers can understand the metaphor, the types of metaphor and understand the meaning in a literary work well More importantly, the readers will no longer have difficulties in interpreting the meaning of the sentences that are used by metaphor (types of metaphor) 53 REFERENCES Aristoteles, G (1902) Poetics In S Butcher (Ed Trans) The Poetics of Aristotle Macmillan and Co Limited in Commonwealth, London Auguestine of Hippo, S (2009) On Christian Teaching Rev Professor J F Shaw (translated) Dover Publications (INC), Mineola, New York Baake, K (2003) Metaphor and Knowledge: The Challenges of Writing Science State University of New York Press, New York Bailey, D (1965) Introductory Language Essay W W Norton & Company INC, New York Barnhart, Robert K (1995) Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology Collins Reference, New York Beckson, Karl and Ganz, Arthur (1975) Literary Terms a Dictionary Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York Bradshaw, R (2002) Figure of Speech Wadsworth Thomson Learning, Australia Bui Thi Phuong Trang (2011) An investigation on 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ever two were one, then surely we If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold Or all the riches that the East doth hold My love is such that Rivers cannot quench, Nor ought but love from thee give recompetence Thy love is such I can no way repay The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray Then while we live, in love let's so persever That when we live no more, we may live ever 58 APPENDIX A Letter to Her Husband My head, my heart, mine eyes, my life, more, My joy, my magazine, of earthly store, If two be one, as surely thou and I, How stayest thou there, whilst I at Ipswich lie? So many steps, head from the heart to sever, If but a neck, soon should we be together I, like the Earth this season, mourn in black, My Sun is gone so far in's zodiac, Whom whilst I 'joyed, nor storms, nor frost I felt, His warmth such fridged colds did cause to melt My chilled limbs now numbed lie forlorn; Return; return, sweet Sol, from Capricorn; In this dead time, alas, what can I more Than view those fruits which through thy heart I bore? Which sweet contentment yield me for a space, True living pictures of their father's face O strange effect! now thou art southward gone, I weary grow the tedious day so long; But when thou northward to me shalt return, I wish my Sun may never set, but burn Within the Cancer of my glowing breast, The welcome house of him my dearest guest Where ever, ever stay, and go not thence, Till nature's sad decree shall call thee hence; Flesh of thy flesh, bone of thy bone, I here, thou there, yet both but one 59 ... used to gather and analyze the kinds of metaphor of the selected poems and the meaning of metaphor (kinds of metaphor) of the selected poems 1.5 Scope of the study In this research, the researcher... University of Sumatra Utara (2011) In his research, he analyzed the kinds of metaphor, the meaning of each metaphor, and the dominance of metaphor types found in the newspaper The object of this thesis... Synesthetic metaphor With the findings of my thesis named: ? ?An Analysis of the Metaphor in Anne Bradstreet’s Poems? ??, I hope that my study will be of some helps for the teaching and learning English