Rhythm, Composition, Syntax and Semantics in R.S. Thomas’ “No”, “Kneeling” and “Via Negativa”

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to present a semiotic analysis of three poems by R.S. Thomas. The research material enables me: 1—to exemplify idiosyncratic employment of poetic devices; 2—to illustrate functional juxtaposition of various compositional units (such as a metrical foot, a hemistich, a line, a stanza, a sentence, an entire text); and 3—to underline paradigmatic and syntagmatic tensions between/within particular textual levels. Rather than focus on a unified interpretation of particular poems, I concentrate on the complexity of functions that are ascribed to individual compositional units. The functional analysis of the relations between rhythm, composition, syntax and semantics in the selected poems of R.S. Thomas is treated as the groundwork for their interpretation. The methodological background for this paper encompasses Central and Eastern European schools of literary studies such as Russian formalism, the Prague and Polish structural schools, and Tartu semiotics.

Keywords

• R.S. Thomas
• compositional units
• Prague and Polish structural schools
• rhythm
• Russian formalism
• semantics