Most sonnets are love poems, but a vast array of subjects can be embedded in sonnets. Silence can be considered a fascinating subject in both British and American Poetry as it is usually associated with philosophy and can arouse intense emotions in readers. In poetry, silence is subtly portrayed despite its negative impact on the moods of some poets. This study attempts to explore how silence is seen from different perspectives in relation to selected sonnets. Concepts of love, loss, death, solitude and nature are disclosed via the vivid portrayal of silence which is subject to both favourable and unfavourable contexts provided in poetry. The reign of silence has a profound impact on troubled mind, blissful solitude, pleasant moments and changes in attitudes. Through silence, poets reveal their innermost thoughts and feelings in three sonnets. This study aims to raise readers’ awareness of blessings and curses of silence, which can make them thought-provoking in analyzing forms of sonnets and figuring out meanings of silence via denotation and connotation. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were deployed in order to find out similarities and differences of three sonnets in terms of denotation and connotation. Based on the results, the most significant proportion of connotation was employed in ‘Sonnet-Silence’. Silence is twofold in each sonnet in that it serves as perfect harmony, sheer bliss or intense grief. Denotative meaning is misleading; it often contradicts connotative meaning. It was found that silence has different layers of meaning indeed. All the poets employ silence as a powerful tool in order to convey interesting messages to readers.
| Published in | English Language, Literature & Culture (Volume 5, Issue 3) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ellc.20200503.14 |
| Page(s) | 98-106 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Silence, Sonnet, Love, Death, Nature, Denotation, Connotation
| [1] | Feldman, P. R. D., Feldman, P. R., & Robinson, D. (2002). A century of sonnets: The romantic era revival, 1750-1850. New York: Oxford. |
| [2] | https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Hood |
| [3] | Maunder, A. (2010). Encyclopedia of literary romanticism. New York: Facts On File. |
| [4] | Sova, D. (2007). Critical Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. |
| [5] | Pope-Hennessy, U. (1971). Edgar Allan Poe. Ardent Media. |
| [6] | Krueger, C., L. (2003). Encyclopedia of British Writers, 19th and 20th Centuries, 2-Volume Set. |
| [7] | https://hero033.edublogs.org/poetry-analysis-silent-noon/ |
| [8] | Evans, V. J. D. (2020). Pathways to Literature: Student Book (1st ed.). Express Publishing. |
| [9] | Abrams, M. H., & Harpham, G. G. (2012). A glossary of literary terms. Boston, Mass: Wadsworth. |
| [10] | Leech, G. N. (1981). Semantics: The study of meaning. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin. |
| [11] | Kreidler, C. (2013). Introducing English Semantics (2nd ed.). Routledge. |
| [12] | Bressler, C. E. (2011). Literary criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. Literary Criticism by Charles E. Bressler |
| [13] | https://literarydevices.net/silence/ |
| [14] | Hood, T. (1876). The Choice Works of Thomas Hood. |
| [15] | http://www.davidglensmith.com/lonestar/2327/slides/slides13-Sonnet-Poe.pdf |
| [16] | Poe, E. A., & Thompson, G. R. (2009). Great short works of Edgar Allan Poe: Poems, tales, criticism. |
| [17] | Quinn, A. H., & Rosenheim, S. (1998). Edgar Allan Poe: A critical biography. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. |
| [18] | https://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/house-life-19-silent-noon |
| [19] | Spector, S. (1976). Rossetti's Self-Destroying "Moment's Monument": "Silent Noon". Victorian Poetry, 14 (1), 54-58. Retrieved July 10, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/ 40001858 |
| [20] | Cronin, R., & John Wiley & Sons. (2016). Reading Victorian poetry. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell. |
APA Style
Nwe Nwe Hlaing. (2020). Exploring Silence Embedded in Three Selected Sonnets. English Language, Literature & Culture, 5(3), 98-106. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200503.14
ACS Style
Nwe Nwe Hlaing. Exploring Silence Embedded in Three Selected Sonnets. Engl. Lang. Lit. Cult. 2020, 5(3), 98-106. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200503.14
AMA Style
Nwe Nwe Hlaing. Exploring Silence Embedded in Three Selected Sonnets. Engl Lang Lit Cult. 2020;5(3):98-106. doi: 10.11648/j.ellc.20200503.14
Share This Article
Twitter
Linked In
Facebook
Copy
Download@article{10.11648/j.ellc.20200503.14,
author = {Nwe Nwe Hlaing},
title = {Exploring Silence Embedded in Three Selected Sonnets},
journal = {English Language, Literature & Culture},
volume = {5},
number = {3},
pages = {98-106},
doi = {10.11648/j.ellc.20200503.14},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200503.14},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ellc.20200503.14},
abstract = {Most sonnets are love poems, but a vast array of subjects can be embedded in sonnets. Silence can be considered a fascinating subject in both British and American Poetry as it is usually associated with philosophy and can arouse intense emotions in readers. In poetry, silence is subtly portrayed despite its negative impact on the moods of some poets. This study attempts to explore how silence is seen from different perspectives in relation to selected sonnets. Concepts of love, loss, death, solitude and nature are disclosed via the vivid portrayal of silence which is subject to both favourable and unfavourable contexts provided in poetry. The reign of silence has a profound impact on troubled mind, blissful solitude, pleasant moments and changes in attitudes. Through silence, poets reveal their innermost thoughts and feelings in three sonnets. This study aims to raise readers’ awareness of blessings and curses of silence, which can make them thought-provoking in analyzing forms of sonnets and figuring out meanings of silence via denotation and connotation. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were deployed in order to find out similarities and differences of three sonnets in terms of denotation and connotation. Based on the results, the most significant proportion of connotation was employed in ‘Sonnet-Silence’. Silence is twofold in each sonnet in that it serves as perfect harmony, sheer bliss or intense grief. Denotative meaning is misleading; it often contradicts connotative meaning. It was found that silence has different layers of meaning indeed. All the poets employ silence as a powerful tool in order to convey interesting messages to readers.},
year = {2020}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Exploring Silence Embedded in Three Selected Sonnets AU - Nwe Nwe Hlaing Y1 - 2020/08/27 PY - 2020 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200503.14 DO - 10.11648/j.ellc.20200503.14 T2 - English Language, Literature & Culture JF - English Language, Literature & Culture JO - English Language, Literature & Culture SP - 98 EP - 106 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2575-2413 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ellc.20200503.14 AB - Most sonnets are love poems, but a vast array of subjects can be embedded in sonnets. Silence can be considered a fascinating subject in both British and American Poetry as it is usually associated with philosophy and can arouse intense emotions in readers. In poetry, silence is subtly portrayed despite its negative impact on the moods of some poets. This study attempts to explore how silence is seen from different perspectives in relation to selected sonnets. Concepts of love, loss, death, solitude and nature are disclosed via the vivid portrayal of silence which is subject to both favourable and unfavourable contexts provided in poetry. The reign of silence has a profound impact on troubled mind, blissful solitude, pleasant moments and changes in attitudes. Through silence, poets reveal their innermost thoughts and feelings in three sonnets. This study aims to raise readers’ awareness of blessings and curses of silence, which can make them thought-provoking in analyzing forms of sonnets and figuring out meanings of silence via denotation and connotation. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were deployed in order to find out similarities and differences of three sonnets in terms of denotation and connotation. Based on the results, the most significant proportion of connotation was employed in ‘Sonnet-Silence’. Silence is twofold in each sonnet in that it serves as perfect harmony, sheer bliss or intense grief. Denotative meaning is misleading; it often contradicts connotative meaning. It was found that silence has different layers of meaning indeed. All the poets employ silence as a powerful tool in order to convey interesting messages to readers. VL - 5 IS - 3 ER -
Information
Email: