The Art of Rhyme in Larkin's Poetry(Kansai English Studies)

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  • ラーキン詩における韻の手法(特別寄稿論文,関西英文学研究)
  • ラーキン詩における韻の手法
  • ラーキンシ ニ オケル イン ノ シュホウ

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Larkin is particularly concerned with the exploration of rhyme to activate the meaning of his poems. Therefore, in the former part of this paper, I focus my attention on his adroit use of rhyme schemes which neatly correspond to the content of his poems. In "Ambulances", the enclosed rhyme scheme is employed to call up the image of the "closed" ambulances, whose interior room, being isolated from the world of everyday-life, is a metaphor for the anteroom to death. In "Vers de Societe", the arrangement of the three rhymes in each stanza shifts as the poem develops and thus Larkin manages ingeniously to evoke the gradual change of the speaker's meditation. In the latter part of this paper, I deal with Larkin's use of perfect and imperfect rhymes which are closely related to the content or meaning of his poems. In "Reasons for Attendance", the speaker's irritated feelings of self-doubt underneath the apparent confidence in his commitment to art are reflected in the use of the imperfect rhymes in the first three stanzas. However, his pretension has given away to genuine feelings of envy towards the young dancers. Thus, his eventual sense of relief is suggested by the perfect rhymes in the last stanza. In "The View", an exclusive use of perfect rhymes (including three feminine rhymes) is associated with the steady steps of approaching death. On the other hand, the half- rhymes and the feminine half-rhymes of "Toads" and "Toads Revisited" serve to evoke a comic aura for their persona by means of their discordant sounds. In "The Importance of Elsewhere", the half-rhymes are effectively used to emphasize the speaker's isolation and the differences in speech between the Irish people and him. Thus, Larkin is one of the few modern poets who attempt to explore the possibilities of rhyme to the full.

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