Good morning everybody. Are you done with the
quiz? I know today's class is exceptional. It is
very short. Because we started like by doing the
quiz, calling your names. The quiz is like two
marks. It will be added to your midterm. So
hopefully it will improve your midterm exam. Now
we don't want to let this chance go without
videotaping the class. So today we are having
Jehan Farrah. She's going to take over. And she's
going to give a short presentation about the
stylistic analysis of the accent. Good, go ahead.
Okay, I'm not going to do anything new really. I'm
just going to do them quite like, just like a sum
up of what we discussed in the previous class. So,
the oxen, I don't know, we read it before, so I'll
make you listen. After we're done, you can listen
to the Christmas Carol, the oxen itself. Okay,
first of all, we said that in the In the poem, you
have a difference between like the poet separated
between the time of the first two stanzas and the
last two stanzas by saying first he used then and
then he used in these years. So then what does it
signify? It signifies the patterns of life back
then and the ritual supports of the community.
Like everything was like the two stanzas
completely had like this coherent idea of
spirituality and community and stuff like that.
But then in these years, you find a lot of
skepticism, a lot of doubts, a lot of things that
are reflected in the stylistic devices that are
used that we're going to discuss further on. And
you see that the language itself had stylistic
contrast, like the language in the first two
stanzas were contrasting blatantly with the last
two stanzas. So you mean the language, like the
lexical choices? Yeah, we're going to go back to
it. First stylistic contrast was the tense. Like
you see that he drew a parallel. All these
stylistic devices he used are drawing like a
parallel or a parallelism or sort of contrast
between the first two stanzas and the last two
stanzas. The first one was the tense. You find
that in the first two stanzas, The tense he used
was in the past tense. And then in the second, he
used the present tense. Like here you see he's
said, like an elder said, dwelt, all these dead,
all of these were in the past tense. But then he
comes here and he goes, I feel, et cetera. So he
uses the present tense afterwards. So what? So we,
we see that he's drawing a contrast between
before. Yeah, but like, so what? Like, we have to
give meaning to this. Yeah. When we're talking
about, you know, the past which happened and
finished. Yeah. So it's over. It's over. We are no
longer under the pressure of time. Of the time.
You know, it is done. It is behind. But here, it
feels like we are under the pressure of time.
Yeah. We feel, we still have. I feel. We have to
suffer. You see what I mean? And then after that,
we talked about the modal verbs. First of all, we
said, what do they signify? We have the fact that
they reflect greater uncertainty because they're
not like certain verbs. They actually give
uncertainty to the words you're saying. And they
signal subjective orientation towards the events
or the actions that are happening. So in the
second, he didn't use any modal verbs in the first
two stanzas. which give you the impression that
everything was certain they believed in everything
that was said but then he moved in the last two
stanzas he used would should and might and those
are modal verbs so in the second stanzas it
reflects the complexity and the more skeptical
attitude towards things
It's like I, okay. The close structure, we talked
about the shift from a simple structure to a more
complex structure. Like at the beginning you see
just main closes, like there is like a subordinate
close between, but as you carry on, as you move on
in the poem, you see that he actually started
using like defining closes and Like the structure
itself became more complex to reflect the
complexity of the attitude of the nowadays. So
there is parallelism. This is what she wants to
say. There is parallelism between the complexity
of syntax and the complexity of models. of the
meaning he wanted to give. And then the pronouns.
The pronouns, we talked about the we versus the I.
At the beginning, he talked about we, he said we.
And then, like here, we pictured. So he's using
the collective, like he's reflecting the
community. But then he moved on to say I, I feel,
I should go. So this is reflecting the nowadays
more individuality. So there is separation between
the, community and individualism. And then you see
the points of reference it further illustrates the
same point which is for example at the beginning
he used elder and then in the second two stances
he used someone and this reflects also at the
beginning like they knew there is an elder
everyone believed in the wisdom of the elder
everyone believed in this and it was a community
and then he moved to someone there's more doubts
more skepticism if you may. Yeah, yeah And also
here you see like the word yonder, he signified,
like he said, come and then yonder. But then in
the second later, he went like at the beginning,
there's like childhood. It wasn't something
specific. So it's more vague, more general. So as
you move on, there's more particular, like they
pay attention to more particular things. At the
beginning, they used to take things for granted.
It lacks clarity, it lacks any vein, you know?
Yeah, so this is basically what I wanted to say.
And you can add also like the lexical choices.
Yeah, for example here, like he put hard side and
he put childhood, but then he used gloom. Do you
mean meek, mild, creatures, flock? All these words
have positive connotations. But if you go to
gloom, goo, and even like, the sound itself is
like, not very musical. But there is one thing,
you know, I want all of you to think about. Now,
yes, the two, the first two stanzas sharply
contrast with the second two stanzas. However,
there is something I noticed in the poem, and I'm
not sure. Like you have the rhyme, it's perfect
rhyme. You see what I mean? There's a couple,
couplets. What does it mean? Can you give meaning
to this? Now, you have here two words, two
contrasting words. But when it comes to the rhyme,
you know, it is perfect. It is regular. So here,
now if I were him, I would Use like I rhyme,
imperfect rhyme, in order to parallel this word,
but hardly, you know, just like give us this. Yes.
Everything will be okay and that's even if there
is some complications. So do you want to say that
he wants to give some hope? Yes. Okay, good. Thank
you. It's a good, I haven't thought about this.
Yes? Maybe he was affected by the last days or the
last. Yeah, he's still like affected by like. He's
recalling. He has some, you know, something to
offer like good. Perhaps, yes. Sir, maybe, I don't
know, it could be wrong, but maybe he like, he
feels like we didn't really feel this change, like
during the days, like it passed on really quickly
that we didn't feel it, so it felt to us it's like
it's happening very eventual, it's happening
very... Yes, it's a good idea. More, why? This is
a good question, you know, this is a good exam
question. Okay, I don't want to ask you difficult
questions like this. Okay, it's easy. Look here. I
think Hardy, you know, as a poet, the poet works
with rhyme, rhythm, you know? And here, you know,
just like putting perfect rhyme now is an
indication that he himself doesn't point himself
to either words. He's ambivalent. you don't he
doesn't show his attitude he doesn't commit
himself to either of these words to the past or to
the present so himself like he is like not showing
where he is siding with the past or with the
present and this adds more uncertainty to the poem
so he doesn't want to commit himself to an
attitude, to which word he is belonging, and this
adds more ambivalence and more uncertainty to the
poem. In fact, yes, as I told you, you have to
read the stylistic analysis carefully, and if you
have any question, we can answer it easily.
Thank you. I don't know if there's time to show
them Is there a movie? No, it's like a two-minute
Christmas Carol. I don't know if you hear it. We
don't have a voice. Okay.
Yeah, Christmas in a few days. We should have
waited to teach, you know, the accent like next
week. You can't hear it? I think, you know, last
year it coincided with Christmas Like
they sing it as a Christmas carol Yeah, like if
you go to YouTube, I think you can find it sung in
a different way
Thank you very much. Next time we are doing
futility. And in order to understand futility, I
want also you to read The Soldier for Brook. It
will be an introduction. The Soldier. There is a
poem called The Soldier Before Futility. And
again, futility, we are going to conduct stylistic
analysis. So we might finish the course either
Saturday at maximum Monday. But let's hope we
finish on Saturday. Let's hope. Thank you very
much and take care. Bye.