Poem is defined as a piece of writing in which the words are chosen for their sound and the images they suggest, not just for the lexical meaning of the
words Oxford English Learner’s:972. There are so many people that like to read poem. There are even more, try to express feeling in poems. Writers usually use
non-literal expression in the poems to make the poems beautiful. We can see the difference between poems with non-literal expression and poems that use literal or
direct way. It is more interesting for readers to read those with non-literal meaning.
In this thesis I am interested to analyze the non-literal meaning found in poems. Poets convey something to the reader through the poem; sometimes it is
very difficult to understand a poem for it may contain so many expressions with non-literal meaning.
One of the most popular poets in English literature was Robert Frost. He was an American born writer but then come to England. One of his most famous
poems is “stopping by woods on a snowy evening”. I choose Robert frost’s poems as the object of my analysis because there are many non-literal expressions in his
poems that could be analyzed from semantics point of view. Besides he always delivered his idea in the poem by using non-literal expressions. Look at the title of
the poem, the title itself shows a non-literal meaning. “Stopping by woods”, is a kind of personification. So it is not a literary analysis but concern with the
language by using semantics theory.
1.2 Problems of the Analysis
According to the background explained above, the problems of the analysis are formulated as follows:
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1. What are the types of non-literal meaning found in Robert Frost’s
selected poems? 2.
What is the meaning of each non-literal meaning found in Robert Frost’s selected poems?
1.3. Objectives of the Analysis
Concerning to the problem of the analysis as mentioned above, I do expect that I can achieve the objectives below:
1. To find out the types of any non-literal meaning in Robert frost’s
selected poems 2.
To describe the meaning of each non-literal expressions which found in Robert Frost’s selected poems
1.4. Scope of the Analysis
There are so many non-literal expressions that could be found in any literary works. In the process of analyzing the problems in this thesis, I limit the
analysis only in Robert Frost’s selected poems. This analysis is focused on non-literal meaning in Robert Frost’s selected
poems by using semantics theory. In this thesis I will only analyze figurative way metaphor, personification, euphemism, irony, and simile facetious way irony,
exaggerated way hyperbole, and idiom that could be found in the poems.
1.5. Significance of Study
Theoretically this thesis can expand or add knowledge for student of language in terms of semantics, especially in non-literal meaning. Practically this
thesis can be useful in learning poems. Of course we will not learn poems with the literal meaning. So by knowing the non-literal meaning, it can help the process of
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teaching or learning poems. In the next time I do hope that this thesis will be useful for people in daily conversation.
1.6. Review of Related Literature
In doing this thesis, I have consulted and read some information from some research made before. They are some thesis which are relevant to the topic
to support the idea of the analysis. Some of them are quoted as follows. Nasution 2005 in his thesis entitled “An Analysis of Non-literal Meaning
Found in Guns ‘N Roses selected Lyrics” concluded that the songwriter uses four kinds of non-literal meaning that are figurative ways, facetious ways, and idioms.
The figurative ways consists of simile, metaphor, personification, and euphemism. But in facetious way, the songwriter only uses irony. In this thesis the writer
provides a brief discussion on semantics before come to the analysis. Husaini 2007 in his thesis entitled “An Analysis of non-literal Meaning
found in Roxette selected Lyrics” concluded that the songwriter uses non-literal meaning in the lyrics; they are simile, metaphor, personification, and euphemism,
and also irony. There is no exact number or percentage is provided in this thesis. Idham 2003 in his thesis “An Analysis of Non-literal Meaning in
Obscene Language Used in Slipknot’s Selected Songs” concluded that there are 32 cases of the using of non-literal meaning in the songs. They are 16 cases for
facetious way, 9 cases for sarcastic, 7 cases for ironic, 14 cases for exaggerated ways, and two cases for figurative way metaphor and euphemism. This finding
that there are 16 cases of facetious way in the lyrics actually shows that the society or the genres of their music is a rock society.
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CHAPTER II AN OVERVIEW ON SEMANTICS
