Emily Dickinsons 1400

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Regueira, Ins A systemic approach

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A systemic approach to Emily Dickinsons 1400Introduction

Emily Dickinsons poems have been acclaimed all over the world but also considered bothdifficult and complex to analyze. Harold Bloom (2005:430) tells us that we are always

apprentices when we approach a poem by Emily Dickinson mainly due to its authenticdifficulty. In spite of such hindrance, the poet manages to arouse our admiration and she

undoubtedly creates texts of intense beauty. Susan Howe (1997) wrote: In prose and in

poetry she explored the implications of breaking the law just short of breaking off

communication with a reader.

The inherent complexity of the poems and, at the same time, the pleasure they bring to the

mind have challenged many critics and readers to find an explanation to this apparent

conflict. Kinnell (1997) claims: In my opinion, she could not have accomplished her great

work without making two technical innovations.[] Dickinson's chosen form requiresrhymes, which are scarce in English, at frequent intervals [...]Her other innovation protects

the density and dissonance of her poems from the singsong latent in common meter.

The Academy of American Poets explains that: Emily Dickinson made this same hymnmeter--and the emotionally spiritual content of Watts's biblical adaptations--the foundation

of her poetic.

Moreover, Bloom (2005: 434) wonders what we can do with Dickinsons genius, how we

can describe such a whimsical and conceptually original genius. He claims that she

surpasses all the other western poets, except Blake and Shakespeare, in cognitive

originality.

Functional Systemic Grammar provides a sound theoretical frame to account for the

complexity and beauty of Emily Dickinsons poems because systemic theory is grounded

on the notion that a language is interpreted as networks of interlocking options, of choices

of meanings. Discourse analysis based on Systemic Grammar focuses on the understanding

of texts and, on a higher level, on interpretation and evaluation of texts. This goal is very

much harder to attain. It requires an interpretation not only of the text itself but also of itscontext (context of situation, of culture), and of the systematic relationship between context

and text. (Halliday, 1997: XV)

In this paper, the genre of the text, written poetic genre, will be specially considered. For

us a genre is a staged, goal-oriented social process. Social because we participate in genreswith other people; goal- oriented because we use genres to get things done; staged because

it usually takes a few steps to reach our goals. (Martin & Rose, 2003: 7,8)

In written poetic genre, Theme analysis and the analysis of Theme progression allow us to

observe the flow of information and the accumulation of meanings. Martin (1999) follows

Friess assertion that the pattern of Themes constructs a texts method of development and

the pattern of News constructs its point. The hyper Theme or topic sentence makes it

possible to distinguish the Orientation of a text and its consequent Elaboration.

While hyperThemes predict what each phase of discourse


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will be about, new information accumulates in each clause as the phase

unfolds. In written texts in particular, this accumulation of new information

is often distilled in a final sentence that thus functions as a hyperNew to the phase.1

My analysis will try to explain Theme development in a poem by Emily Dickinson

following Functional Systemic Grammar. The objective is to describe Theme progression

and texture taking into consideration the works by J. R. Martin and to provide a descriptionof the distribution of communicative dynamism in the text.

Functional Systemic Analysis

Emily Dickinsons poems call for an explanation of the unusual strategies used and the

originality of her style, so the analysis of the Textual Metafunction seems relevant

because: When we look at language from the point of view of the textual metafunction, we

are trying to see how speakers construct their messages in a way which makes them fit

smoothly into the unfolding language event [] speakers constantly signal to them

(listeners) how the present part of their message fits in with other parts. (Thompson, 1997:117)

An attempt to explain Dickinsons poem will be undertaken by observing the construction

of Themes, Rheme and the meanings produced and communicated. The Theme is the

element which serves as the point of departure of the message. (Halliday, 1997:37)

The poem chosen is 1400. It was probably written in 1877 and it has not been often

analyzed.

1400

What mystery pervades a well!

That water lives so far --

A neighbor from another world

Residing in a jar

Whose limit none have ever seen,But just his lid of glass --

Like looking every time you please

In an abysss face!

The grass does not appear afraid,

I often wonder he

Can stand so close and look so bold

At what is awe to me.

1Working with Discourse (Martin & Rose, 2003: 182)


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Related somehow they may be,

The sedge stands next the sea --

Where he is floorless

And does no timidity betrayBut nature is a stranger yet;

The ones that cite her mostHave never passed her haunted house,

Nor simplified her ghost.

To pity those that know her not

Is helped by the regretThat those who know her, know her less

The nearer her they get.

An analysis of Theme and Rheme is presented in the following grid:

THEME RHEME

Textual Interpersonal Experiential Subject

(unmarked)

Process

What a mystery Pervades A well!

That water lives So far- a

neighbor from

another world

residing in a jarwhose limit none

have ever seen,

but just his lid of

glass-

Like lookingevery time youplease in anabysss face!

The grass Does not

appear

Afraid,

In oftenwonder

He Can stand So close

and look So bold at what is

awe to me.

Relatedsomehow

they May be,

The sedge stands Next the sea-

where he is

floorless and does


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not timidity

betray.

but Nature Is A stranger yet;

The ones that

cite her most

Have

never

passed

Her haunted

house,

nor simplified Her ghost.

To pity, Those thatknow her not

Is helped By the regret that

those who know

her, know her less

the nearer her

they get.

Thematic progression would be as follows:

Hypertheme

T1 R1 MYSTERY WELL linear mystery

T2 (R1) R2 WATER JAR progression

T3 (R2) JAR

T4 R3 GRASS FEAR constant

T5 (T4) R4 GRASS CLOSE parallel

T6 (T4) R5 GRASS BOLD progression

T7 (T2+T4) R6 THEY RELATED nature

T8 R7 SEDGE SEA linear

T9 (R7) R8 NATURE STRANGER progression

T10 R9 THE ONES NOT PASSED constantparallel

T11 (T10) R10 SIMPLIFIED GHOST progression

T12 R11 THOSE KNOW LESS not know


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It is interesting to appreciate the alternation of linear progression and constant parallel

progression. This alternation is broken twice when independent and marked Themes are

presented (Related somehow they and To pity those that know her not). These themesintroduce the Hyper Themes that derive from the first Hyper Theme: mystery. These Hyper

Themes summarize the message of the poem: Nature is a mystery that not even those who

approach her get to know.

Communicative Dynamism

A functional perspective, considers how the different parts of a sentence are organized and

in what way dynamism is conveyed.

A characteristic of communicative dynamism is that it is expressed linearly. The

participants in the Theme do not enable the reader to anticipate the Rheme the poem has,

and the New element increases dynamism, the water in the well is presented as a detached

and distant neighbor, we learn that grass is courageous and the sedge is not timid.

And at the same time, dynamism is also contextual because in the immediate relevant

context the Theme does not announce the New information the poem provides. Sharedknowledge of the world does not allow for the characteristics that the poem attributes to

Nature. Thus, the Rheme is surprising and increases the communicative dynamism. The

contextual factor harmonizes with the linear modification, creating a rise in thecommunicative dynamism.

Rhemes in the poem mention feelings: nostalgia, fear, courage, surprise, timidity, fear of

the unknown and pity. The emotional weight of the poem is kept for the Rheme, andinterpersonal elements appear in the Theme in the form of exclamations and adverbial

expressions.

The semantic analysis shows that there is a great impact on communication because the

semantic content of the verbs does not correspond to the participants. Also, the adverbial

complements that here modify the linear pattern have great dynamism because they areunexpected, this is the case of the wonder of the grass and Natures pity.

The poem presents a high communicative dynamism because there is interaction among the

three factors: semantic content of some verbs, the contextual element and the linear factor.

It is important to notice the processes used by Dickinson in this poem as it was already

mentioned in the previous analysis of communicative dynamism.

Mystery pervades relational process

Water- lives relational process

Grass- does not appear afraid relational process

stand behavioral process


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look bold relational process

Nature-is relational process

Ones never passed behavioral process

simplify her ghost

Those- not know mental processesIs helped

Those know- get

The Participants that belong to the world of nature, such as the water, the grass, the sedgeand nature itself, use mainly relational processes, and only one is a behavioral process.

The human Participants, those who know nature and those who do not, those who get close

to nature, and both the reader and the poet express mental processes and one behavioral

process.

Relational processes stand for the permanence of nature, humans watch and admire nature

through reason, and this is expressed through mental processes, that is the reason why

humans cannot understand nature. Emily Dickinson seems to believe that reason is not the

right way to approach nature, the only possibility being through feelings, the world of

feelings expressed in the Rheme of the poem.

Texture

Martin defines texture asone aspect of the study of coherence, which takes the social context

of texture into consideration. The goal of discourse analysis in this

tradition is to build a model that places texts in their social contexts

and looks comprehensively at the resources which both integrate

and situate them.2

Within this aspect he includes the study of cohesion as a set of discourse semantic systems.

One of these systems is identification (concerned with resources for tracking participants indiscourse), another one is conjunction (concerned with resources for connecting messages,

via addition, comparison, temporality and causality), and thirdly, the system of ideation

(concerned with the semantics of lexical relations as they are deployed to construe

institutional activity). (Martin,2003: 38)

2Working with Discourse: Meaning beyond the clause. (Martin, and Rose, 2003:35)


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In the poem, we find:

1: reference chains:

A well- that water- abyss

The grass-he they

That water

A jar-whose

Limit-his

The sea-he

Nature-her-her-her-her-her-her-her

Those-they

The ones thatThose that

Those who

2: conjunctions:

Like looking every time you please in an abysss face! (comparison)

And-but-nor

Related somehow (comparison)

To pity (causality)

3: lexical chains:

mystery

well-water-jar-abyss-stranger-ghost

fear-not afraid- in wonder-bold-awe-floorless-haunted

far-close-next

less-nearergrass-sedge

well-water-abyss far awe to me

grass-he not afraid-close-bold

sedge-sea nextnature-stranger

the ones that cite-not passed-haunted house-nor simplified-ghost

those that know not-regretthose who know-know less

A text is coherent as far as its coherence is consistent with its situational context and its

register. In this sense we say that the text is inherently coherent and cohesive. The poem

analyzed is coherent with its poetic genre by using personifications and metaphors.


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The poem 1400 presents a coherent texture because it is adequate to its poetic registerand shows coherent relations in its ideational, reference and conjunction systems.

Theme and Rhem in a translation to Spanish

Henry Weil claims that thinking processes differ from syntax, and consequently word order

must be respected over syntactic relations because syntax (functions) represents something

that can be perceived and does not change, while the order of words represents the thinking

process.

The analysis of Theme and Rheme in the Spanish version of the poem translated by

Margarita Ardanaz (2004) will show if the interpretations of the poem in its original

language can be kept for the translation.

1400

Qu misterio colma un pozo!

Pues vive el agua tan lejos-

Un vecino de otro mundo

Que reside en una jarra

Cuyo lmite nadie ha visto nunca,

Slo su tapa de cristal-Cmo mirar cada vez que se quiera

en el rostro de un abismo!

La hierba no parece tener miedo,

A veces me pregunto si l

Puede permanecer tan cerca y parecer tan osadoAnte lo que para m es temor reverencial.

De alguna forma pueden estar relacionados

El junco junto al mar se encuentra-

Donde l est sin suelo

Y no delata timidez alguna

Mas la naturaleza sigue siendo un extrao;Los que la citan ms

No han traspasado nunca su mansin hechizadaY no han simplificado su fantasma.

Compadecerse de los que la ignoran

Se fomenta con el remordimiento

De que quien la conoce, la conoce menos

Cuanto ms se le acerca.


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TEMA REMA

Textual Interpersonal Experiencial Sujeto (nomarcado)

Proceso

Qu misterio colma Un pozo!

Pues vive el agua tan lejos-Un vecino de otro

mundo

que reside en una

jarra cuyo lmitenadie ha visto

nunca,

slo su tapa decristal-

Cmo mirarcada vez que

se quieraen el rostro de

un abismo!

La hierba No parece tener miedo,

A veces me pregunto si l puedepermanecer tancerca y parecer

tan osado ante lo

que para m estemor

reverencial.

De algunaforma

pueden estar relacionados,

El juncojunto

al mar

se

encuentra-

donde lest sin

sueloy no delatatimidez alguna

Mas La naturaleza sigue siendo Un extrao;

Los que la

citan ms

No han

traspasado

nunca su mansin

hechizada


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y No han

simplificado

Su fantasma

Compadecerse

de los que laignoran

se fomenta Con el

remordimiento

de que quien la

conoce, la conoce

menos cuanto

ms se le acerca.

There are differences between the marked subjects in both versions. There is ambiguity in

the subject he in the third stanza. Although the message is not changed, the development

of Theme is not as clear as in the original version. However, feelings are still placed in the

Rheme and communicative dynamism is kept by the semantic factor of the processes. Theadverbial expressions do not add dynamism to the linear factor in Ardanazs translation.

Conclusions

Functional Systemic Grammar can account for the beauty and complexity of the poem

1400 in an organized and methodic way. The study of the thematic function, especially in

the original language, highlights the ability of the poet at creating a highly dynamic text and

organizing the flux of information through hyper Themes, this approach shows also therhythm and regularity obtained by the succession of Themes.

The selection of the semantic content of the processes, even though it is clearly typical ofthe metaphoric language of poetic genre, serves the purpose of considering the opposition

between reason and feelings as ways of understanding nature.

The text is cohesive and coherent with its context of situation and of culture, and the textualmeanings provide an order to the message and make it relevant.

The use of Functional Systemic Grammar does not invalidate the explanations coming

from other fields but its tools help us explain how the selection of themes and their

progression construct a text that produces surprise and admiration and the analysis of thetextual metafunction shows how the authors vision of the world is built and how her

message is organized in the poem.


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Bibliography

Bloom, Harold (2005) Genios . Norma: Bogot.

Dickinson, Emily (2004) Poemas. Edicin Bilinge de Margarita Ardanaz Ctedra:

Madrid

Halliday, M. (1994).An Introduction to Functional Grammar. Segunda Edicin

Arnold: London.. Quinta Impresin 1997.

Howe, Susan (1997)My Emily Dickinson (excerpts)

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/my-emily.html

Kinnell, Galway (1997)Reckless Genius

http://www.salon.com/feature/1997/11/cov_03kinnell.html

Martin, J. R. (1999) Grace: the logogenesis of freedom inDiscourse Studies 1 (1):

29-56

Martin, J. R. y Rose, D. (2003) Working with Discourse: Meaning beyond the

clause. Continuum: London and New York

Martin, J.R and Rose, D. (2003). Working with Discourse. Continuum. London.

The Academy of American Poets - Isaac Watts & Emily Dickinson: Inherited Meter

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5814

Thompson, G. (1996).Introducing Functional Grammar. Arnold: London. Segunda

Edicin 1997.

Weil, Henri (1844)De lordre des mots dans les langues anciennes comprees aux

langues modernas

Acknowledgments

To Ann Borsinger who introduced me to Functional Systemic Grammar.

To Laura Roseti, Alicia Nerguizian and Marina Fernndez who helped me with invaluable

suggestions when editing my work.

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Emily Dickinsons 1400