A comparative analysis of temporal structure of English poetic texts for adults and children

Journal of Language and Education. 2016. Vol. 2. No. 2. P. 6–13.

Denisova N., Yusipova D.

Poetry has always been under the focus of scholars’ attention, though the problem of performing comparative analysis of children’s and adults’ poetry has not deserved enough attention yet. Our study is aimed to fill in the gap and provide the analysis of English poetry for adults and children with the attempt to identify some grammatical peculiarities of the corresponding poetic texts. The scope of the texts for examination is limited to English poetry of the nineteenth – twentieth centuries focused on the animal theme. Our analysis of the temporal structure of the texts selected was based on the method elaborated by Ludmila Nozdrina in her work “Poetics of grammar categories” (2004). The results of our study have proved the hypothesis we stated: there exist some differences in temporal structuring of the nineteenth–twentieth century poetic English texts focused on the animal theme. The main difference lies in targeting the poem: whether it appeals to adults or children.

Keywords: text analysis, grammar, literature, poetry, English poetry