Poetic Waveforms, Discrete Fourier Transform Analysis of Phonemic Accumulations, and Love in the Garden of Tennyson’s Maud

Abstract

The present study proposed two advances in phonostylistics, both based on a theory of the persistence of phonemes and subsequent calculations of phonemic accumulations. On the macro-stylistic level is offered a numerical calculation that describes the tendency of a poem to follow broad climactic shapes in its use of fricative and plosive phonemes. Preliminary data suggests that this calculation allows for the categorization of a poem on a scale indicative of its naïve or sophisticated use of poetic language. On the micro-stylistic level is offered a graphical indication of linguistic moments in a poem where the poem diverges from the more regular phonemic patterns it has otherwise established. These linguistic moments can highlight for the literary commentator particular loci of a poem’s interesting use of language. This is demonstrated through an analysis of Tennyson’s poem, “Come into the garden, Maud.”