A study of deixis in relation to lyric poetry.

This thesis is an examination of the role of deixis in a
specific literary genre, the lyric poem. Deixis is seen as
not only a fundamental aspect of human discourse, but the
prime function in the construction of 'world-view' and the
expression of subjective reference. In the first part of
the thesis current problems in deictic theory are explored
and the relationship between deixis and context is
clarified. A methodology for the analysis of deixis in any
given text is constructed and the pragmatics of the lyric
poem described. The methodology is applied to detailed
analyses of selected lyric poems of Vaughan, Wordsworth,
Pound and Ashberry. There is a demonstration of how deixis
contributes to the functioning of the poetic persona, and
the changes in deixis occurring diachronically in the
poetry are examined. In conclusion it is demonstrated that
although deixis necessarily reflects the changing
subjectivity of the poetic persona through time, there are
many elements of deixis which are constant across
historical and stylistic boundaries. There remains a
tension between the constraints of the genre, the necessary
functions of deixis and the shifting subjectivities which
that deixis reflects.