Puheenomaisen runon rakenteesta

• Katja Seutu Helsingin yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30665/av.74657

Abstract

About the structure of a speechlike poem

In this article, I examine Maila Pylkkönen's (1931-l986) monologuel Arvo, Vanhaäiti puhuu runonsa (1959) as a speechlike poetical work. I define a speechlike poem as a poem which creates an illusion of speech in some way. Often this illusion is created by utilizing some spoken language features. In Arvo it is created also by introducing the speaker of the poems in a title: Vanhaäiti puhuu runonsa (The Old Woman Speaks Her Poem).

This article shows that speechlikeness can also become evident in the structure of a poem. By adapting a linguistic utterance analysis to the analysis of a poem, it is possible to notice that the line units of Arvo's poems are based on communicative and pragmatic principles. For example, a poems line units can constitute a fictive story in which case each line unit represents one turn of that story. Thus by means of an utterance analysis, it is possible to notice that the borders of Arvo's line units represent semantic shifts from one standpoint to the other.

Entire poems by Arvo can be seen to relate to each other by semantic shifts. This means that poems construct semantic stages, which represent different biographical phases of the old woman's life. For instance, one stage represents the relationships of the old woman's family and another represents life after the war. Secondly the function of these semantic stages is to represent the old woman's emotions: Ionging, loneliness and alienation from the world. This happens in collaboration with a scenic structure, an affective, italicized opening poem as well as with the premeditated use of the present tense. The aim of this study is to show that even if the speechlikeness of a poem is most often connected with the utilization of spoken language features, this usage is a far more broader phenomenon: the rhetoric purpose of the representation of speech in Arvo is to create a believable speech of the old woman, which in turn calls the reader to identify with the old woman's situation and emotions.