A Stylistic Study of the T . S . Eliot ' s Poem of ' The Love Song

| ABSTRACT This study highlights Parallelism as a stylistic device in T. S. Elliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)". This study tries to show the importance of Parallelism in poetry and how it is dominated in the twentieth century. Specifically, it aims to explore the operationality of parallelism as a stylistic device in twentieth-century poetry, identifying the most dominant type of parallelism in twentieth-century poetry and showing how parallelism is useful as a stylistic device for the reader. The study results revealed that Parallelism is manifest, of great use in the interpretation of the poem. The twentieth-century poets in general and T. S. Eliot' depend on parallelism in aestheticizing or beautifying their poems as it represents a set of regularities of form.


Introduction
Etymologically, the word 'poet' is derived from the word 'maker'. Hence, there is a close link between a carpenter or architect and a poet, as both of them are makers. Both of them work on symmetry in their compositions (Crawforth, 2013: 2).
Thus, writers generally utilize a wide range of linguistic and paralinguistic devices, including graphological, phonological, semantic, lexical and syntactic, to communicate textual meaning and enhance the artistic texture and flavor of their works. These devices make the ordinary extraordinary. Parallelism is one of these devices that is used to achieve balance or artistic equilibrium. It is defined as the occurrence of two identical structures in poems. It can be identified on the level of lexis, grammar, phonology, graphology, semantics and dialect (Scheindlin, 1974: 65).
To the best of the researcher's knowledge, this stylistic device, especially in twentieth-century poetry, has not thoroughly been dealt with. Therefore, the present study is carried out to shed light on the role of such a stylistic device in literary texts, especially in poetry. Hence, this study is an attempt to answer the following questions: How does parallelism have an operational role as a stylistic device in twentieth-century poetry? What is the most dominant type of parallelism in twentieth-century poetry? How can parallelism, as a stylistic device, be of benefit for the reader? In light of the above-mentioned problems, this study aims to explore the operationality of parallelism as a stylistic device in twentieth-century poetry and identify the most dominant type of parallelism in twentieth-century poetry. Showing the way parallelism is useful as a stylistic device for the reader.

Theoretical Background 1.Stylistics
Stylistics has been defined as a discipline of linguistics that is concerned with the systematic analysis of style in language and how this can vary according to such factors as, for example, genre, context, historical period and author. For instance, there is the individual style that distinguishes one writer from another, the styles associated with particular genres (e.g. 'newspaper language' or the gothic novel), or the characteristics of what might constitute a 'literary' style. In this sense, analyzing style means looking systematically at the formal features of a text, determining their functional significance for the interpretation of the text in question (Jeffries and McIntyre, 2010: 1).

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On his part, Short (1996: 1) defines it as "an approach to the analysis of (literary) texts using the linguistic description". Leech and Short (1981:74) illustrate the task of stylistic analysis as "an attempt to find the artistic principles underlying a writer choice of language. Similarly, Sampson (2004: 2) maintains that it "is a method of textual interpretation in which primacy of place is assigned to language". Language is so important to stylistics because the various forms, patterns, and levels that constitute linguistic structure are an important index of the function of the text.

Stylistic Devises
A stylistic device is a method a writer chooses to convey information by manipulating language in various techniques to achieve differing results. They include alliteration, consonance, assonance, repetition, allusion, metaphor, parallelism, metaphor, etc. (Robbins, 2007: 88).
It refers to any linguistic element standing out from its own context in such a way to attract the reader's attention and provoke a reaction by breaking predictability as it deviates or contrast from the pattern set up previously in the text or the context(i.e. the norm) (Hickey, 1999: 5).
A stylistic device consists of a deviation from the linguistic norm. That is to say, in our ordinary use of language, we have all kinds of normal expectations, and the grammar of a language is a codification of such expectations; but stylistic devices are felt to be deviations from what we normally expect (Ellis, 1974: 161).
When used effectively, stylistic devices help us convey our ideas more clearly, clarify our meanings, add colour, humour, and description to our words (Robbins, 2007: 91).
Parallelism, being one of the most common and useful devices that can be recognized, identified, interpreted or analyzed, is our concern in the following sections.

Parallelism
Parallelism is a stylistic device of producing two or more syntactic structures according to the same syntactic pattern. More clearly, it refers to the use of identical grammatical structures for related words, phrases, or clauses in a sentence or a paragraph to show that the ideas presented have the same level of importance (Website Resource 1). Parallelism can make the writing more forceful, interesting, and clear. It helps to link related ideas and to emphasize the relationships between them. Once a grammatical pattern has been established, the reader doesn't have to strain to understand your meaning and ideas. It is required whenever its absence interferes with clarity. Parallelism is probably grammatically necessary when the phrase, sentence or paragraph sounds awkward, lacks flow, and creates confusion (Website Resource 2).

4 Types of Parallelism
A grammatical parallel structure is a parallel structure where similar grammatical units are repeated. Parallelism works on different phonological, grammatical, lexical, and even semantic structures. For Widdowson (1975: 54-55), grammatical parallelism is such parallelism that promotes different kinds of meaning relations between the expressions where normally these elements may not be expected. For achieving the desired effect, many poets employ the repeated structure of the Wh-question.
Phonological parallelism is parallelism in which certain phonetical structures are repeated to draw the reader's attention to a certain element of the poem (Website Resource 3).
Graphological parallelism is such parallelism in which the stanzaic structure is repeated. Though it is a kind of aid to visual perception, it brings a kind of symmetry or equivalence among the stanzas and makes a point that ideas evaluated in the poem are of equal values; not a single idea is of higher values or of lower values (ibid.).
Semantic parallelism It is such parallelism in which meanings are paralleled to enforce the synonymical or antonymical relations (punter, 1996: 62).
For Montgomery and Durant (2000: 126), syntactical parallelism is a typical sentence pattern repeated. This helps the poet to form a unique sequence of such words that would produce a unique effect, which that and only that sequence can produce. If the repetition of the invariant part is felt at the beginning of a relevant unit of text, such parallelism is called anaphora. If it is felt at the end of the unit, it is called Epistrophe. It is called a symploce if it occurs initially and finally within the same unit. If the last part of one unit is repeated at the beginning of the next unit, it is called Anadiplosis. If the repetition of items is in reverse order, it is called an Antistrophe. If the same word is repeated with varying grammatical inflections, then it is called polyptoton. If the repetition of the same derivational or inflectional ending is on different words, it is called homoioteleuton.

5 Parallelism in the Twentieth Century Poetry
The use of parallelism is predominant and prevalent in poetry from the classical to the modern age. Many famous writers employed it like William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, John Donne, Alexander Pope, and William Blake (Website Resource 4). It proves the fact that poets, like other artists, are craftsmen.
Poets use parallelism to achieve thematic significance. A poet uses this stylistic device to draw the readers to a certain significant aspect of poetry, such as focusing on the dissimilar ideas in a similar pattern.
T. S. Eliot, being one of the most popular figures of the twentieth century, depends heavily upon parallelism to achieve aesthetic effects in his poetry and to deliver a message with this type of regularity of form.

6 T. S. Eliot Life and works
Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 1888 -4 January 1965) was an essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and "one of the twentieth century's major poets. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States, to a prominent Boston Brahmin family. He moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25, settling, working, and marrying there. He became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39, renouncing his American passport (Website Resource 5).
Eliot attracted widespread attention for his poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915), which was seen as a masterpiece of the Modernist movement. It was followed by some of the best-known poems in the English language, including The Waste Land (1922), "The Hollow Men" (1925), "Ash Wednesday" (1930), and Four Quartets (1943). He was also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935) and The Cocktail Party (1949). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 "for his outstanding, pioneer contribution to present-day poetry" (ibid.). The poem's structure was heavily influenced by Eliot's extensive reading of Dante Alighieri and made several references to the Bible, and other literary works-including William Shakespeare's plays Henry IV Part II, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet, the poetry of seventeenth-century metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell, and the nineteenth-century French Symbolists. Eliot narrates the experience of Prufrock using the stream of consciousness technique developed by his fellow Modernist writers. The poem, described as a "drama of literary anguish", is a dramatic interior monologue of an urban man, stricken with feelings of isolation and incapability for decisive action that is said, "to epitomize frustration and impotence of the modern individual" and "represent thwarted desires and modern disillusionment" (ibid.).

Data Analysis
Prufrock laments his physical and intellectual inertia, the lost opportunities in his life and lack of spiritual progress, and he is haunted by reminders of unattained carnal love. With visceral feelings of weariness, regret, embarrassment, longing, emasculation, sexual frustration, a sense of decay, and an awareness of mortality, "Prufrock" has become one of the most recognized voices in modern literature (ibid.).

Data Analysis
Below, a stylistic analysis is conducted to the poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915), focusing on the role of parallelism in T. S. Eliot's and twentieth-century poetry, its types and the stylistic effects achieved:

Anaphora:
As was defined earlier, anaphora is the initial verbal repetition. That is the repetition of the same word(s) or phrase at the beginning of the successive phrases, lines, clauses or sentences. This stylistic strategy finds its place in the selected data:

Time for you and time for me, (31)
As shown in the above line, there is an initial succession of phrases of approximately equal length and corresponding structure. Anaphora contains two parts: invariant and variant part. In this example of anaphora, the linguistic items at the beginning of two parallel phrases 'time for' is the invariant part, and the rest is the variant part. Here, Eliot uses the repeated item' time for' to show that time is slipping out of the hands of the persona, i. e. Prufrock and he in a state of severe agitation and excitement that is expressed through this parallel structure. He has a wish for action, but his will is paralyzed: he cannot assert. He can only create a refuge in the possibilities of time.

My necktie rich and modest, but assisted by a single pin-(43)
Again, parallelism occurs with the repetition of the word 'my' in successive phrases. Here, the poet wants to deliver a message that the persona is a socially alienated soul; he has no sense of belonging to society. He wants to have harmony with it, but his fear of being rejected makes him rush from image to image. In his agony, he runs to various sources for help but in vain; In fact, his suppressed self constantly keeps him in instability. The repetition of 'my' shows that now he is asserting, but it is only a sham reality. It emphasizes his use of crutches to do 'overwhelming' work. Therefore, the repetition of 'my', at the same time, indicates his studious but lamentable efforts and various amusing gestures to come to the threshold of action.

Epistrophe:
In contrast with anaphora, epistrophe was previously defined as the repetition of the same word(s) at the end of the successive phrases, clauses, sentences, or lines. Below is an illustration of this stylistic strategy:

That is not it, at all'. (98)
The repetition of the words 'at all' at the end of both the adjacent sentences; is not a normal use of language; it is an abnormal arrangement of words to make the lines marked and popped out to create the intended aesthetic effects. Here, this repetition presses home the relentless quickness in the rejection of the proposal and solid determination of the targeted lady. Prufrock is a man of hallucinations who hears the harsh and disheartening words of the lady in his imagination. The repetition of 'at all' hammers home this content.

Symploce:
This type of verbal parallelism consists of the combination of anaphora and epistrophe. That is, it is found when repletion occurs initially and finally within the same unit it as in: The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes, (15) The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes, (16) The above examples show this type of verbal parallelism as the words "the yellow" are repeated at the beginning of the two successive lines. Moreover, the linguistic items of 'the window-panes' have the exact verbal repetition at the end of these two clauses. Further, both the lines have similarities in the occurrence of the comma at the end. Here, through manipulating this type, the poet tries to indicate that the poem's persona is 'a patient etherized upon a table'; he is tilted towards inaction and inertia and is allergic to action. His movement to his destination is likened to fog -the Prufrockian cat -which does not walk rather drags its back upon the window-panes. The repetition of 'the yellow' and 'the window-panes' stresses the nature of the persona's move to his goal. 'The yellow' fog is very fluid; it seems in motion, but in fact, it is not. Its yellow colour and the transparency of the windowpanes both deceive our eyes. The fog is destined to make a motion and then retreat into its mass "If the cat image suggests sex, it also suggests the greater desire of inactivity" (Williamson, 1988: 60). The repetition of 'the yellow' and that of the 'window-panes' heighten this aspect. It is also very helpful to stamp this image on the mind of the reader. Further, it makes the lines easy to stick to our memory. Lastly, this repetition is so successful in creating impressions on the mind of the reader that the fog episode turns into an Imagist poem within a poem. It is also so successful in its sensation and effects that the image of the persona always comes to our mind and eyes like a cat.

Homoioteleuton:
It is the repetition of endings in words. Homeoteleuton is also known as near rhyme (Website Resource 7). The following lines illustrate the poet's employment of this type of parallelism:

Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, (40)
The muttering retreats (5) Of restless nights in the one-night cheap hotels (6) And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: (7) Streets that follow like a tedious argument (8)

Of insidious intent (9)
The plural morpheme '-s', which occurs at the ends of the words 'street', 'retreat', 'night', 'hotel', 'restaurant' and 'oyster-shell', is intended to create stylistic effects. First, like Drew (1950: 54) maintains, to materialize or externalize a long chain of barriers, obstacles and hindrances in the psyche of Prufrock, who is on his way to action; the filthy and ill-smelling locations realized through the plural morpheme are the "emotional realities" of the persona. Second, it is effected semantically that it creates a semantic juxtaposition dealing with the common theme of modern barrenness, i. e. 'half-deserted streets', 'restless nights', 'sawdust restaurants' and 'muttering retreats'; these vivid images do stress "the ugliness and squalor of the common urban scene" (ibid.). Third, this type of parallelism creates a powerful impression that, from the interiors of his psyche, the persona will never be able to come to the surface for action; he is a helpless insect that remains entangled in the pitiable "locations" of his mind (Scofield,1988: 58).
Again, the plural morpheme '-s' occurs with the lexical items at the end of the first two lines:

Before the taking of a toast and tea. (34)
The above use also achieves some stylistic effects. That is, it is noticed that the morpheme is added to all the important nouns of a couple of lines, which are, more importantly, preceded by 'a hundred.' The plural morpheme'-s' here stands for strong walls of inaction within which the persona remained imprisoned, and the impossibility of escape from it is ensured (Drew, 1950: 53). Prufrock is trapped in a circular voyage and diurnal journey of indecisions, visions and revisions, which are his studiously sought excuses and pretexts to avoid action.

Polyptoton:
The words derived from the same root are repeated (such as "strong" and "strength").

I am no prophet---and here' s no great matter; (83) I have seen the moments of my greatness flicker, (84)
Here, the lexemes' great' and 'greatness' are derived from the same root 'great'. This, in turn, creates important artistic and stylistic effects. 'Great' is the lexeme that does suit the heroically grand figures only, but here the word has a ridiculously appropriate use to create a flow of laughter and smiles. According to Scofield (1988: 62), a pigmy is put in the grand mould to emphasize the "self mocked-romanticism" of the persona. Hence, the repetition of 'great' in these two lines enhances the comic effects in the poem. The table above shows that Eliot employed five types of parallelism, among which Homoioteleuton makes the highest percentage (50 %).

Conclusions
On the basis of the analysis conducted in chapter four of the present study, the following conclusions are drawn: 1. Parallelism is manifest, of great use in the poem's interpretation.
2. The twentieth-century poets in general and T. S. Eliot's, in particular, depend on parallelism in aestheticizing or beautifying their poems as it represents a set of regularities of form. Moreover, this device is helpful for them in emphasizing and suggesting a deeper connection between specific ideas musicality and attracting the reader's attention. This validates the first hypothesis, which is: The twentieth-century poets take parallelism to be their stylistic device regardless of the theme they write upon.
3. Homoioteleuton is the most dominant type of parallelism that is very much effective in interpreting and stressing the frustrations and psychological fixtures of the speaker of the poem, i.e. Prufrock. It makes (50%), which, in turn, validates the second hypothesis of the present study: Homoioteleuton is the most dominant type of parallelism in twentieth-century poetry.
4. Parallelism is a device for memorability. It also helps the reader decode the message in the given poem and explore the size and depth of the poetic emotions and thoughts. This proves the third hypothesis which is: Parallelism is a device for memorability and decoding the message in a given poem.