DICTIONA Lesson in Poetry

DYLAN THOMAS, WELSH POET, CRITIC AND PLAYWRIGHT (1914-1953)

“What I like to do is treat words as a craftsman does his wood or stone or what-have-you, to hew, carve, mold, coil, polish, and plane them into patterns, sequences, sculptures, fugues of sound expressing some lyrical impulse, some spiritual doubt or conviction, some dimly-realized truth I must try to reach and realize.”

Photo credit from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Thomas

Now that we’ve discussed Imagery and Symbolism it’s time to move onto

another important area of poetry: Diction!

Simply put, diction refers to the

word choice an author makes.

Although you are looking at it in the poetry section of this course, you could easily apply these concepts to any area of literature, including the essay writing.

While the definition is pretty straightforward, the ideas behind it are more complex:

First of all, we have to consider two words with which you are probably already familiar:

connotation and denotation.

DENOTATION Let’s start by reviewing the simplest one first. Denotation is the dictionary definition of a word.

For example, if you look up the word “home” in The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, here is the first part of the definition:

“Dwelling-place; fixed residence of family or

household”.

CONNOTATION Connotation is a bit more complex.

If we take the meaning of the word “house” from the same dictionary you find this: “Building for human habitation”.

Now, when you compare the definition of “house” with the definition of “home”, you may think there is very little difference between them, so, if you’re a writer and you have to use one or the other as a noun, how do you decide which one to use? Does it matter?

That’s where connotation comes in because connotation is the association we put on words.

HOUSE or

HOME???

This is difficult to think about perhaps because connotations are often

linked to personal experiences or cultural background.

If someone from a different cultural background is reading a poem, play,

novel or essay, the effect may be quite different from what the author

had in mind.

Consider this:

Here are two sentences that have the same denotative meaning:

Sentence #1. I am going to my house.

Sentence #2. I am going to my home.

They have the same intent. They express the idea that I am going to get up from where I am right now and go to the place where I live. But do they have the same connotative meaning? Does “house” have the same associations that “home” has?

I can’t answer that for you because it depends on your personal

experience and cultural background which may differ from mine.

House Home

For me, house refers to the physical building only; whereas, home conjures up images of the people (and animals) who make up the family unit and the feelings I have when we are all together either for meals or for special occasions.

Sometimes the connotative meaning can be quite unconscious!

Here’s a test, read the following sentence, close your eyes and be conscious of the image that pops into your head:

Sentence #1: Home is where the heart is.

Now try it again with the next sentence:

Sentence #2: House is where the heart is?

What do those two sentences mean to you? What images pop into your head? Which one sounds better? And why?

If you’re anything like me you’re probably

associating home with love and people you love rather than a

physical place.

I hope denotation and connotation are clear for you because they are really at the heart of what we’re thinking about when we consider diction. When I’m writing, whether it’s an essay, a review, or a piece of description, I can shape how my reader reacts to what I’ve said through the choice of words I use. This is at the heart of what we’re talking about in literature when we talk about mood. If my writing is too “flowery”, by that I mean using descriptive language that may be excessive considering my topic, it may seem as if I am making fun of the topic rather than taking it seriously.

Bye for now!