Stylistic Analysis of “The Road Not Taken” and “Birches”

Abstract

Poetry is the heart of literature. It is perhaps the oldest genre in literature having its origin in ancient Greek and Vedic literature. Poetry heavily relies on poetic devices such as metaphors, simile, synecdoche, anaphora etc. The knowledge of literary devices is fundamental to the understanding of poetry. Stylistics is a medium which enables a student of literature to appreciate poetry in a better way. 

Stylistics is a branch of linguistics which is primarily concerned with the application of the methodology of linguistics to the study of the style used in language in particular context. In Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature (1975),H.G. Widdowson defines stylistics as the study of literary discourse from a linguistic orientation. He points out that etymologically the ‘style’ component of the word ‘stylistics’ comes from literary criticism and the ‘istics’ component comes from linguistics. Stylistics is intermediary between linguistics and literary criticism. He goes on to say that ‘stylistics’ can provide a way of mediatingbetween, English language and literature.According to Merriam Webster dictionary, the first useof the term can be tracedback to the year 1883.Style is a distinctive way of using language to convey the intended meaning in an appropriate manner.