Finding the Meaning Research Design

2.2 Finding the Meaning

After reading some definitions of prose poetry and seeing the prose poetry that want to be analyzed also has quality as poetry, the writer has chosen L.G Alexander’s theory to be used in analyzing the prose poetry. For finding its meaning, L.G Alexander 1963 has made it specific by: 1 General Meaning This should be expressed simply in one, or at the most two sentences. It should be based on a reading of the whole poem. Very often, but not always, a poem’s title will give you some indication of its general meaning. 2 Detailed Meaning Detailed meaning should be given stanza by stanza, but this should not paraphrase the poem or worry about the meaning of individual words. The detailed meaning may be written as continuous paragraph, but you must take every care to be accurate and to express yourself in simple sentences. Similarly people must pay special attention to the prose style by showing how the poet begins, how he develops his theme and then how he should make some rough attempt in your reading to divide the lines into fairly self-contained groups. 3 Intention Every poet conveys an experience or attempt to arouse certain feelings in the reader. When you have read a poem and given its general and detailed meaning, you should try to decide what feelings the poet is trying to arouse in you. A poem may affect different people in a great variety of ways and it is often impossible to define a poet’s ‘true’ intention. Your interpretation of a poet’s aims is, therefore, largely a personal matter, but at the same time it should never be far-fetched. It is, however, Universitas Sumatera Utara most important to explain what you have understood a poet’s purpose to be. Just as it is impossible to give the meaning of the poem if you have read it carefully, it is impossible to appreciate the poem if you are unable to define the poet’s intention. Finding meanings of a poem and intentions of the writer are simply the means.

2.3 Devices

L.G Alexander 1963 says that it’s hard to define exactly what a poem is and to state why it gives us pleasure. Every poem is unique and has special qualities of its own so if we want to appreciate poetry, it is necessary to learn how to recognize these ‘special qualities’ which called devices and can be found when we analyze a poem. Devices may be divided into three groups: structural, sense and sound devices. When writing an appreciation of poetry, it is not enough to be able to point out the devices. You must always explain that effect they have and how they help the poet to fulfill his attention.

2.3.1 Structural Devices

Contrast, illustration, repetition: these indicate the way a whole poem has been built and become as soon as the meaning of the poem has been found. 1 Contrast This is one of the most common of all structures devices. It occurs when we find two completely opposite pictures side by side. Sometimes the contrast is immediately obvious and sometimes implied. 2 Illustration This is example which usually takes the form o a vivid picture by which a poet may make an idea clear. Pictures of this sort occur in all the poems. Universitas Sumatera Utara 3 Repetition Poets often repeat single line or whole stanzas at intervals to emphasize a particular idea. Repetition is to be found in poetry which is aiming at a special effect or when a poet wants us to pay very close attention to something.

2.3.1 Sense Devices

Sense devices divide into three: 1 Simile This is a direct comparison and can be recognized by the use of the words like and as. 2 Metaphor This is rather like a simile except that the comparison is not direct but implied: the words like and as are not used. The poet does not say that one object is like another; he says it is another. In the poem Lucy, Wordsworth does not say that the girl was like a violet. He writes: A violet by mossy stone Half hidden from the eye. Lucy, in these lines, is a violet. The metaphor vividly expresses the basic idea of the poem; it represents a girl of rare beauty who ‘lived unknown’. A violet half hidden by a stone is similarly something rare and beautiful which, for most people, ‘live unknown’. 3 Personification Universitas Sumatera Utara This occurs when inanimate objects are given a human form, or when they are made to speak. For example, we can find personification in On his Eighty-Sixth Birthday. The world ‘speaks’ these words: Many have loved me desperately Many with smooth serenity While some nave shown contempt of me Till they dropped underground By means of personification here the poet underlines the close relationship that existed between himself and the world.

2.3.1 Sound Devices

Sound devices can be considered as musical quality of a poem when it is read aloud. For analyzing sound devices, we can divide them being: 1 Alliteration : The repetition of the same sound at frequent intervals. 2 Onomatopoeia : Imitates sounds and thus suggest the object described. 3 Rhyme : Occurs at the end of a poetic line. 4 Assonance : The repeating of stressed vowel sound. In this thesis, the writer will analyze each detailed meaning and general meaning to find out its intention by analyzing its structural and sense devices. Yet, the writer will not analyze the sound devices since it is not the focus on this thesis. Universitas Sumatera Utara CHAPTER III METHOD OF THE STUDY

3.1 Research Design

To make scientific research, research method is needed. The method used in this research is library research. Library research is by collecting all necessary data which is collected from books, reports, journals, etc. The writer also uses intrinsic and extrinsic approach. The extrinsic approach is based on the text itself to find out the meaning of the prose poetry, while extrinsic approach is for relate the meaning of the prose poetry and the self. Those methods will be applied for analyzing and interpreting the meaning of those selected theme in Kahlil Gibran’s book “The Prophet”

3.2 Data Collection