Rabu, 30 Maret 2011

THE USING OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN POEMS WRITTEN BY RUPERT BROOKE

  1. Title
THE USING OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN POEMS
WRITTEN BY RUPERT BROOKE

  1. Background of the Study
As a member of modern society, people cannot be separated from the writing and reading. Writing is an activity used to express imagination, ideas, and creativities. Writing can also contribute to our spiritual and emotional development. Reading is useful because by reading people will get information, knowledge about science, technology, and others.
Some people are more interested in reading a literary book rather than scientific book. This is because of two reasons. First, reading a literary book is just an entertainment for them. They need relax time after they are confronted by monotonous and static activities like working and studying. So that, by reading the literary book they can get their own pleasure. Second, reading a literary book makes them seeing, feeling and understanding life, human beings, and nature better (Koesnoesoebroto, 1980:4).
A literary book such as drama, poetry, and fiction is an author imagination of world, life, and experience remarked in words. The one of literary books, which is discussed here, is poetry.
Poetry is the oldest form of literature. A long time ago, when people did not know anything about written language, they got such kind of stories from a storyteller. The storyteller relied many stories on his memory and not on written language. He was speaking at the common place like markets and the edge of broadways with many people surround him to recite his stories. Those memorized stories are what people today called with verse or poems (Barnett, 1963:297).
Poetry is the most condensed and concentrated form of literature and says it in fewer words and in less space. Poets choose words for their sense, but they also choose words for what they hit at or suggest, for the way their sound and for the word pictures they create (Perrine, 1977:9).
As one of the oldest genre in literary history, poetry is closely related to the term “lyric”, which derives etymologically from the Greek musical instrument “lyra”, and points to an origin in the sphere of music. In classical antiquity as well as in the Middle Ages, minstrel recited poetry, accompanied by the lyre or other musical instruments. The term “poetry” however goes back to the Greek word “poieo” (“to make” or “to produce”), indicating that the poet is the person who “makes” verse (Klarer, 1999:28).
Poetry is not a higher kind of reason; it is the first grade of verbalized experience, prior to logic, prior to morality. The world (wherever is outside ourselves) makes its impression on us. The mind expresses its intuitions in verbal symbols and that expression is poetry.
Poetry is at once the simplest and the most complex form of literary expression. It is simple in the sense that it is primitive, that historically it precedes prose literature and represents a more direct and spontaneous method of rendering experience in language than prose. It is free to utilize all the aspect of language, the sound and rhythm, and associations of words, as well as their intellectual meaning or simple denotation.
Nevertheless, the language of poem precisely has a specific value for a poet. It illustrates many subjects of life. It is maybe like a poem of Rupert Brooke. The most Brooke’s theme of poem is about war patriotism in the First World War, but he also has a love, bravery and mythology topics(http://www.europeanhistory.about.com/library/readyref/blpersonrupertbrooke.htm. October. 10. 2004).
Ordinary persons maybe find some difficulties to say the right sentences to apprehend. Their thoughts and feeling are dealing with their imaginations and experiences. In this case poets have been able to explain it. However, the language of poems is not only amusement and decoration, it aids to the poet’s messages to the readers, also entails in social fact, human nature, and personal experiences.
Here, the writer wants to focus on the dominant figurative language used in Rupert Brooke’s poems. Figurative language is the language that has more than one meaning and produced from creative imagination. It cannot be understood literary because the words are used in non- literal sense.
In the poetry, a poet tries to express his ideas, and imaginations through a medium of language. Since the poet uses a language as the medium of conveying his ideas, it is quiet important. Like rhythm and imaginary; figurative language might be to be the province of poetry rather than novel.
Figurative language according to Warinner (in Tarigan, 1985:179) is language that is used imaginatively and not literary. Thus when having to understand it, people have to think deeper. Figurative language is not intended to be interpreted in a literal sense. Appealing to the imagination, figurative language provides new ways of looking at the new world. It always makes the use of a comparison between different things. Figurative language compares two things that are different in enough ways so that their similarities, when pointed out, are interesting, unique and/or surprising (http:www.languagesearch. PcHr/eduplan /figurative.html).
The similarity in dissimilarity then is the essence of comparison. In here, the poet just wants to give impression to his language to express his special meaning in order to get a special effect from the reader. For poet, words can mean more than dictionary means. Words have the power to suggest ideas and images related to their explicit meaning.
The figurative language, after all, belongs to a language phenomenon, which is interested to analyze, because they are the products of creative imagination. Figurative language with its compatible terms forces the reader to attend to the connotation rather than to the denotations. Using the figurative language the poet can create his poem concrete, condensed and interesting. The writer takes Rupert Brooke’s poems in figurative language because it makes the writer interested in knowing the knowledge of poetry and its elements in order to be more clearly understood by the writer and the reader generally.
With these arguments and reasons, the researcher feels fully encouraged to analyze the phenomenon and to present it in the research paper entitle THE USING OF FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE IN POEMS WRITTEN BY RUPERT BROOKE.

  1. Literature Review
Some graduated students of Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta have done the researches on figurative language. They have the same topic or subject, that is figurative language, but different in field.
To provide the originality of this research, the researcher wants to
present the previous research that deals especially with figurative language in general.
The previous research is done by Dewangkari (2003) in “Analysis on Figurative Language Used in Jhon Donne’s poems”. Her study comes to the conclusion that the dominant figurative language that Donne’s used in his poems are hyperbole and symbol.
Another study is from Fadhilah (2004) in “Analysis on Figurative
Language Used in Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage”. She also found all of figurative language s used in that novel and the dominant figurative language that Crane’s used on his poems are simile and personification.
Based on the researches above, the researcher is sure that her research has not been analyzed yet. Therefore, she is going to analyze the figurative language used in Rupert Brooke’s poems.
The both researches have the same topic but different in data. In this research, the researcher discusses the figurative language and the writer wants to know the kinds of figurative language used in Rupert Brooke’s poems, to describe the meaning of figurative language found in Rupert Brooke’s poems and to reveal the dominant figurative language in the Rupert Brooke’s poems.

  1. Problem statement
In this research, the problem statements are as follows:
  1. What kinds of figurative language can be found in Rupert Brooke’s poems?
  2. What is the meaning of figurative language found in Rupert Brooke’s poems?

  1. Limitation of the study
In this research, the researcher just wants to analyze the kinds of figurative language in Rupert Brooke’s poems, the meaning of figurative language in Rupert Brooke’s poems, and the dominant of figurative language in Rupert Brooke’s poems. The writer takes five poems of Rupert Brooke among at all of his poems because they have the love and mythology topics; beside Rupert Brooke is well known as the romantic and war-patriotic poets. And the writer concentrates on: The Fish, A Channel Passage, Heaven, Menelaus and Helen, and The Great Lover.

  1. Objective of the study
The objective of the study are as followings:
  1. To find out the kinds of the figurative language in Rupert Brooke’s poems.
  2. To describe the meaning of the figurative language in Rupert Brooke’s poems.
  3. To find out the dominant figurative language in Rupert Brooke’s poems.

  1. Benefit of the study
The benefits of the study from the poetry are:
  1. Theoretical Benefit
This study can contribute to the science of linguistics, especially the
relation between figurative language and literary work.
  1. Practical Benefit
It is expected that study can improve the student or the reader’s knowledge particularly in figurative language in Rupert Brooke’s poems.


  1. Theoretical approach
In order to know about figurative language in poems written by Rupert Brooke, the writer use the theory to analyze figurative language in Rupert Brooke’s poems that presented by Laurence Perrine besides some other scientist’s theories that support it.
To get better understanding about it, the writer presents them one by one. The presentation consists of the language of literature, figurative language, history of rupert brooke, and the last is theoretical application those will be explained as follows:
  1. The language of literature
The word of literature is world of word. Since literature in the widest meaning is “ anything written” (Barnett, 1963:1). The most significance of a literary work is its language. Definitely, a literary work is the author’s imagination of world life, and experiences remarked in words. As Tirajoh (1988:4) says that literature is fundamentally an expression of life through the medium of language.
In poetry, a poet tries to send his messages, ideas and imagination with appropriate words. He hopes the readers will get a good understanding of his poems. Yet, he is constantly striving to find the full resources meaning of a word. More over, he divided the precise words to convey his experienced imagination in a suitable context.
Language for a poet is analogously a paintbrush for a painter. Here the writer agrees with Welleck (1956:74) that states:
“A poet is a literary artist and language is the material of his painting. The meaning of poetry is contextual: a word carries with it not only a dictionary meaning but also an aura of synonyms and homonyms. Words not only have a meaning but also evoke the meanings of words that are contrasted or excluded. Language study thus becomes extraordinarily important for the study of poetry”.

The language of literature is not merely the aids of communication of poet’s creative work, but it will fulfill the artist purposes. To give a special effect of art and beauty, a poet uses the connotation words rather than denotation. It has more than one meaning. However, the reader must be sensitive to the connotation words for a full response to a literary work.
The language of poetry has some characteristics that differentiate them from the language of prose, fiction, and drama. Poetry has some elements in its body. According to Bulton in Waluyo (1995:5), there are two elements of poetry: physical and mental elements. The mental element includes theme, tone, feeling and message. On the other side, the physical element consists of diction, the concrete word, figurative language, rhythm and rhyme. Both elements stand as wholeness of soul and body and cannot be associated. Learning the physical and mental elements of poem requires a comprehension of the whole body of poems. Furthermore, the physical element explains the mental elements and the contrary; the mental form clarified the physical one.
An association between words and its equilibrium result the connotation meaning. Its overtones of meaning suggest anything else beyond what is expressed. The example is a word used in poems. Its meaning will depend on the whole context of poems.
  1. Figurative language
  1. Notion of figurative language
Figurative language is a poet’s expression of his imagination. According to Perrine (1977:61), figurative language is broadly defined as anyway of saying something other than ordinary way. And it is more narrowly definable as a way of saying one thing and meaning another.
A poem is the poet’s creative works. His writing communicates his experience. A figure of speech makes poetry become interesting and attractive. The poetry is a live. It declines the absurdity of meaning.
According to Alternberd in Pradopo (2003:62), a figure of speech has one general characteristic. A figure of speech ties up one thing to another thing; the link between two things includes comparison, exaggeration and saying less.
Figurative language makes writing concrete and colorful. Because language is adaptable and lends itself to imaginative usage; man can express the same idea in different ways. He may use direct statement or new way uses figurative language.
Dale in Tarigan (1985:6) states that figure of speech is figurative language that employed to heighten and improve an effect by introducing and comparing one certain thing to another more general thing.
From the definition above, it can be concluded that figurative language is a form of expression that departs from normal word or sentence on form common literal meaning of word or sentence or form common literal meaning. Figurative language goes beyond the literary meaning of words to achieve a particular effect.
The purpose of figurative uses is to stimulate a certain image. It affects the language beauty of work in both oral and written communication. Figurative language serves a variety of purposes. They are used to clarify meaning, to provide vivid examples, to emphasize, to stimulate associations and emotions, to give life to inanimate object, to amuse or to ornament.
The most important, they have an essentials aesthetic purpose, widening and deepening the range of perception and response to the word of objects and ideas. In other words, figurative language serves to convey thought, feeling and perceptions that cannot be adequately expressed in literal language.
  1. Kinds of figurative language
In this research, the researcher discusses the figurative language based on Perrine’s perception. According to Perrine (1977:61-109), figurative language consists of 12 kinds, they are: simile, metaphor, personificatio n, apostrophe, synecdoche, metonymy, symbol, allegory, paradox, hyperbole/overstatement, understatement, and irony.
What follows are explanation about the figurative language based on Perrine’s perception:
  1. Simile
Simile and metaphor genuinely have an identical definition. Both of them compare two things that absolutely different. Simile is the explicit comparison of two things, indicates by the word or phrase such as like, as, than, similar, resemble or seems. (Perrine, 1977:61)
Simile is the simplest kind of figurative language and it is usually used in the poem (Pradopo, 2003:62). Here the example of simile from Shakespeare in Siswantoro (2002: 25).
How like a winter hath my absence been
Fom thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freeezings have I felt, what days sseen
What old december’s bareness every where
By using simile, Shakespeare expresses the warmless of love when he is far from his lover. He compares the absence of his lover with the winter season, when there is only frozen and darkness day.
  1. Metaphor
Defining a metaphor more difficult than a simile, perhaps the most helpful thing to know is when a poet uses metaphor; there is always a comparison at the poet’s mind. This comparison holds merely in the world of imagination.
Perrine (1977:61) states that between metaphor and simile is similar. Both of them are comparison between two things that are essentially unlike. The only distinction between them is the use of connective words. In simile, the poet uses the connective word such as: like, as than, similar to, resemble or seems, while in metaphor the comparison is implied the figurative term is substituted for or identified with the literal term.
Here the example of metaphor from Robert Herrick in Siswantoro (2002:28).
You are a tulip seen today
But, dearest, of so short to stay
That where you grew scarce man can say
In this stanza, the poet compare his lover with tulip flower that is known, this flower is beautiful but also has a short life.
  1. Personification
Personification is the figurative language that is giving the attribute of human beings to animal, an object or a concept. It is sub type of metaphor, an implied comparison in which the figurative term of the comparison is always human being. (Perrine, 1977: 64).
According to Pradopo (2003: 75), the ancient poets until today’s poets have used personification. It is comparison between inanimate things and person. Personification makes the poet’s language is a live. It gives the clarity in the reader’s mind of a certain object.
The example of personification from Siswantoro (2002:30)
Flame ate the house
In here, flame is placed as human being and acted eats. All of us understand that this activity works for people or animal, but in this sentence the image of flame is presented as the human being. So in here, giving an attribute to an object.
  1. Apostrophe
Apostrophe defined as addressing someone absent or something non human as if it was a live and present and could reply to what is being said (Perrine, 1977:65).
Apostrophe is also a form of personification in which nonhuman or in animate thing is directly addressed as if it were human or animate.
Example of apostrophe from William Wordsworth in Siswantoro (2002: 32):
Sweet Thames! Run soflty till I end my song.
The line above, the poet greets Thames River in London to flow gently until he finishes his song.
  1. Synecdoche
Synecdoche is the use of the part for the whole. (Perrine, 1977:67). Pradopo (1999:79) divides synecdoche into two parts: they are Pars pro toto and Totem proparte. Pars pro toto is a part for the whole and totem proparte is when the whole things stand for its part. This example from Shakespeare in Siswantoro (2002: 32):
Cuckoo, cuckoo! O word of fear
Unpleasing to a married ear!
In this poem, the poet uses synecdoche in ‘a married ear’. Ear, a part of body in here represents a man.
  1. Metonymy
Metonymy is the use of something closely related to the thing actually meant (Perrine, 1977:67). It can be considered that metonymy is the substitution of a word naming an object for another word closely associated with. This example in Tirajoh (1988: 48):
He is addicted to the bottle.
It is another way of saying that he drink too much whiskey, so it is called using metonymy.
  1. Symbol
Symbol is defined as something that means more than what it is (Perrine, 1977:81). Symbol maybe best understood as an implied metaphor. This example in Perrine (1977: 82):
You cannot teach an old dog new trick.
In here, not only talking about dog itself, but about living creatures of any species and therefore speaking symbolically. An old dog can be understood as old man that in his aged he cannot think likes he was young.
  1. Allegory
Allegory is narrative or description that has meaning beneath the surface one (Perrine, 1977: 88). Allegory is description that has another meaning. The meaning beneath is different from its description. This example from Fadhilah (2004: 50)
He trew a pine cones at a jovial squirrel and he ran with chattering fear.
The above sentence is allegory because the meaning in the sentence is definitely different from its description.
Based on the context, the sentence means a man does not feel guilty as leaving his regiment to get his own salvation. He thinks that his act is wise and true things. More over, as he sees a squirrel save itself, he thinks that everything in nature operates upon the principle of self-preservation.



  1. Paradox
Paradox is an apparent contradiction that is nevertheless something true. It maybe either situation orstatement. (Perrine, 1977:101). Paradox is the statement seemingly self-contradiction or opposed to what is commonly held to be true but which nevertheless contains a truth. This example in Siswantoro (2002:41):
And death shall be no more; eath thou salt die
For the poet, death will not exist again, because death will die, and the poet has slept and will wake up forever, then there will be no more death and the death has passed by.
  1. Hyperbole/overstatement
Hyperbole is simply exaggeration out in the service of truth (Perrine, 1977:102). This example is taken from Siswantoro (2002: 34):
Why man, if the river were dry
I am able to fill it with tears
Hyperbole is used by the poet overloaded. The poet says that when the river is less of water, he will fill it with his tears. We know that impossible that the tears can fill the river.
  1. Understatement
Understatement is saying less than one means that may exist in what are says or merely in how one say it (Perrine, 1977:102). Understatement is opposite of overstatement. As the researcher has already noted above that overstatement is saying more, while understatement is saying less than what the words means.
Example: Keep your bright swords, for the dew will must them.
Here, he is speaking a quarrel between men armed with swords, as though it were a promenade. The effect is to draw the readers into the heroic calm of writer.
  1. Irony
Irony is the opposite of what one means. (Perrine, 1977: 103), an author employs the device for irony effect, letting the reader into the author’s confidence, and revealing him as an inventor who is often at or loss for matter to sustain his plot and undecided about how to continue it. This example taken from Fadhilah (2004:49):
It is my first and last battle old boy.
The above sentence is an irony. Needles to say, no one is to go to the first and the last battle. Because in the above sentence, unfortunately, it does not really happen that a man says suc h expression. A man who is in nervous condition only says such expression. This is clear that what the subject said is much remarkable different from what is expected.

  1. History of Rupert Brooke
The history about Rupert Brooke is taken from Http://www.europeanhistory.about.com/library/readyref/blpersonrupertbrooke.htm.
Rupert Brooke is one of the twentieth century’s poets. He was born in 3rd August 1887 in Rugby, Britain. Brooke was raised in an upper class family, and he was educated at Rugby School in 1906, where his father, William Brooke was the housemaster and later at King’s College in Cambridge. He was known as the bright student/athlete who was quickly accepted amongst the most prominent literary circles including Maynard Keyness, Virginia Woolf, and Edward Thomas.
His study in the classics has suffered as a result, but Brooke moved in elite circles. Moving outside Cambridge, Rupert Brooke lodged in Grantchester, where he worked on a thesis and created poems devoted to his ideal of English country life, many of which formed part of his first collection, simply entitled Poem 1911. Brooke did inspired war patriotism through out the course of World War I from his war sonnet that include; Peace, Safety, The Dead, and The Soldier.
Brooke is not only responsible for war poems; he is recognized for his contributions regarding other poetic topics from love to bravery to aspect of mythology. Some other poems written by Brooke are The Fish, A Channel Passage, Menelaus and Helen, Heaven, and The Great Lover.
Although few of his poems are considered great, when modern literature looks away from World War I, there is a definite place for Brooke and his works from Granchester to Tahiti. He is classed as one of the Georgian poets, whose verse style had noticeably progressed from previous generations, and as a man whose true masterpieces were still to come. Indeed, Brooke contributed to two volumes entitled Georgian Poetry in 1912.
Brooke was applying for a commission in Royal Naval Division, which he gained easily as Marsh was Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, and he saw action in the defense of Antwerp during early October 1914. Brooke actually saw little combat during the war. He contracted bloodpoisoning from a small neglected injury and died in April, 1915, in the Aegean.
  1. Theoretical application
The study of this research is developed using figurative language based on Perrine theory. Figurative language is language using figure of
speech where it cannot be taken literary. There are many kinds of figurative language that can be found in the Rupert Brooke’s poems. Brooke uses figurative language in his poem to convey his thought, feeling, and perception that cannot be adequately expressed in literal language.
This research is done by using figurative language analysis because
figurative language is the dominant and important part in the body of Rupert Brooke’s poems. His figure of speech states the meaning, which is related to the subject matters. A meaning revealed from figure of speech indicates the meaning of the poem.
Here with, the using of figurative language in Rupert Brooke’s poems support every subject matter.
  1. Research method
Research method is defined as a procedure or mechanism necessary applied in finding out the solution for the problems that have been formulated within a research. The research method of the study contains: type of the research, object of the research, type of the data and data source, method of data collection, and technique of data analysis.


  1. Type of the Research
This research is a descriptive research in which the objective is to describe the actual user of language for communication. The nature is not to test and to prove but to explore and to describe.
As a describe one, the research is qualitative. The data collected is in the form of words rather than numbers. The qualitative data consists of detailed description of situation, events, people, interaction, and observed behaviors, direct questions, from people about their experiences, attitudes, beliefs, thoughts, and entire passage from documents, correspondence, records and case histories.
  1. Object of the Research
The object of the research in this study is figurative language used in Rupert Brooke’s poems.
  1. Type of the Data and Data Source
Poetry is at once the simplest and the most complex form of literary expression. The poems can be spoken or written. They can be found in song, magazine, drama, poetry, etc. In this research, the writer will study Rupert Brooke’s poems. The source of all the data taken from the library and internet.
The writer uses primary data sources, are the text itself; The Fish, A Channel Passage, Heaven, Menelaus and Helen, and The Great Lover. The materials are about Rupert Brooke’s poems and also the figurative language theory and the other data, which can support the study.
  1. Method of the Data Collection
The data are collected by documentation. Documentation is the method used in scientific research in order to collect the data by using the document or evidence list. The last the writer collect and record both primary data and secondary data in a sort of documents used as the evidence of the study.
The necessary steps of collecting the data are as follows:
  1. Reading the poem more than once.
  2. Finding out all the words, sentences and phrase having figurative language as the data.
  3. Noting down the data based on their classification.

  1. Paper organization
In order that, the reader can catch the content of research easily, the
research paper is divided into 5 chapters, as follows:
Chapter I is Introduction, which consists of background, review of the Previous study, problem of the research, limitation of the research, objective of the research, benefit of the research, and research paper organization.
Chapter II is Underlying Theory. This chapter deals with the language of literature, figurative language, history of Rupert Brooke and theoretical application.
Chapter III deals with Research Method. This concerns with type of the research, object of the study, types of the data and data source, method of the data collection, and technique of the data analysis.
Chapter IV is Analysis and Discussion, which consist of data classification, data analysis, meaning of figurative language, anddiscussion
of the finding.
Chapter V is Conclusion and Suggestion.

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