Analytical Study Of Stylistic Devices In Four Selected French And English Poems

Abstract

Communication plays a major role in the affairs of man and the development of societies. The number one purpose of communication is understanding. Every writer or speaker often tries to make his/her belief, ideas, thoughts, emotions, and desires among other things comprehensible. A communicator does this through the use of words, collocations or expressions that vividly and precisely capture the context and content of his/her field of discourse. Quite a good number of scholars have worked and are still working on style of writers and speakers around the world. However, less attention has been paid to stylistic devices in texts. This study, therefore, examines issues such as register, figures of speech, allusion, symbolism, enjambment and mood in Four French and English poems. Quantitative research method which allows descriptive presentation of research findings is applied. The study is premised on the theory of Functionalism of text. The choice of the four selected poets is influenced by the fact that the authors are African writers of the colonial and the postcolonial periods. Niyi Osundare and Gbemisola Adeoti write in English while Léopold Sédar Senghor and David Diop write in French. Findings suggest that lexico-semantic interpretation of a text requires the understanding of a writer’s poetic devices The study concludes that the knowledge of stylistic devices in a particular text will enhance its interpretation and its internalization.