A Formalistic View to D.H. Lawrence's "The Little Town in the Evening

A. INTRODUCTION
A.1. Poetry
Talking about literature, people ordinarily will refer to its three main genres: poetry, drama, and prose. Three of them are the representatives of distinctive form and style of literary works. Each of them has its own characteristics, limitations, and even the taste of aesthetic values. None of them is said to be better than the others. Whereas, the perspective(s) used to perceive, enjoy, contemplate, and even scientifically analyze each of those three genres, though closely related to each other, simply have their own space.
Poetry is the said to be the simplest form of literary genre. However, for its simplicity, it is also considered as the most difficult one to analyze. According to Pamela J. Annas, “poetry is melodic and rhythmic, as concerned with sound as it is with content” (p. 181). It means that the arrangement of the content is structuralized both in language devices and musical devices. It is built with the language devices since poetry uses language as its means of communicative presentation of ideas and messages. Moreover, for its quality as a meant-to-be-read-aloud writing, poetry is established with musical devices which contain a set of sound-arrangement forming a distinctive characteristic of sound patterns in poetry.
Furthermore, Perrine asserts that language devices are divided into six categories, namely: denotation and connotation, imagery, metaphor, personification, metonymy, symbol and allegory, and figurative language (paradox, overstatement, understatement, irony, and allusion). Meanwhile, musical devices are divided into three categories, namely: rhyme, meter, and meaning reinforcement using sound (1974).
There are three major categories of poetry. They are lyric poetry, dramatic poetry, and narrative poetry (Annas, p. 181-182). A lyric poem is the expression of the speaker or one person toward their emotions, feeling, expression, and thoughts in a short written text of the poem. Hymn, song, sonnet, ode, elegy, pastoral, and haiku are the types of lyric poems. Dramatic poetry is the poem that has more characters and stressing point to show the conflict between characters. In it, there will be a sort of dialogue performed by the characters. Dramatic poetry has the same line with poetic drama. Lastly, a narrative poem is a type of a poem which tells a story. The examples of narrative poem are epics and ballads.
A.2.The Poem to Analyze
The poem that the writer is going to analyze is included in narrative poem. The title of the poem is The Little Town in the Evening, written by D. H. Lawrence, and published in the year of 1913 along with the other poems in the volume of “Rhyming Poems”. This short poem consists of three stanzas. Each stanza includes four lines which posses a predictable pattern of rhyme.
In her close reading, the writer captures a sense of alienation of one character performed by the narration in the poem. This is the focus of this paper. The writer will utilize a set of intrinsic elements to disclose the sense of alienation of that particular character. Out of a number of intrinsic elements in a poem, what tickles the writer most is the use of symbol, point of view, and rhyming pattern of the poem. Therefore, the writer uses these three items as her instruments in unveiling the sense of alienation proposed as the focus of the paper.
A.3.The Problem to Answer
It is important to state the problem formulation of the paper since it will serve as the guide and limitation of the analysis. In this paper, the problem which appears as the question to answer is how the symbols, point of view, and rhyme support the sense of alienation performed in D. H. Lawrence’s The Little Town in the Evening.
A.4. The Purpose of Writing the Topic
Surely, the purpose of the conduction of the analysis is to describe how the symbols, point of view, and rhyme perform their role as the supporting elements which strengthen the sense of alienation existing in the poem.

B. THEORIES AND METHODOLOGY
B.1. Symbols
There are many books suggesting explanations about symbols. Each of them presents the explanations in different ways. However, actually the main point is the same, that is related to the idea or meaning toward the word itself.
Perrine says that “a symbol may be roughly defined as something that means more than what it is” (1974, p. 628). This means that the words that are used in the poem are mostly chosen ones. Therefore, because the words used are chosen ones, it means that there is something more that a poem intends to show readers about the implicit meaning represented by a certain word. “Symbols vary in the degree of identification and definition that their authors give them” (1974, p. 629). Again, Perrine wants to show readers about the interpretation of the “word” symbolically by the degree of importance toward the meaning inside those words. Symbol is very rich of interpretations, and considered significant in poetic figures. The following conventional examples show how a word symbolizes something else inside it: rose symbolizes women, water symbolizes live, red symbolizes death, white symbolizes a state of being pure, and green symbolizes nature, and so on and so forth.

B.2. Point of View
Point of view is one of the formalistic attentions in analyzing poems. The use of point of view is in conditioning of the narrator in their limitation toward the author’s works. Narrators may be reliable (if they support the explicit or implicit moral norms of the author) or unreliable (if they do not). If the author wants to use the first-person narrator, he or she must be conditioning the form even more because in the first-person point of view, the narration is limited to that person’s telling.
Guerrin says “in some circumstances the author may choose to have a shifting point of view to achieve different effects at different times” (1999, p. 89). It means that the use of point of view in this poem is not stagnant. It can be dynamically changing according to the author’s intention in achieving different atmosphere of effects not only in a single time.
Pronouns are used to state the perspective of the narrator. Readers may recognize the narrator by observing the pronoun(s) used in the poem. The types of point of view can be categorized as follows:
a.The use of the first person singular pronoun “I” and its plural counterpart “We” refers to the first person point of view.
b.The use of the second person singular pronoun “You” and its plural form “You” refers to the second person point of view.
c.The use of the third person singular pronoun “She”, “He”, “It”, and it plural form “They” refers to the third person point of view.

B.3. Rhyme
The discussion of rhyme is included in the musical devices owned by a poem. Perrine suggests that “rhyme is the repetition of the accented vowel sound and all succeeding sounds” (1974, p. 719). Rhyme also helps poets creating the euphonic effects in a poem.
Furthermore, rhym is called masculine when the rhyme sounds involve only one syllable, for example: desks and sex. Rhyme is called feminine when the rhyme sounds involve two or more syllables, for example: turtle and fertile.

B.4. Alienation
In this part, the writer would like to define the term “alienation”. It is important to firstly form the definition of “alienation” since it is the main target of the analysis. Later on, the quality, or meaning features, contained in the term “alienation” will be used as the guide to aim the target of the analysis on symbols, point of view, and rhyme.
According to Hornby’s Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary, the entry “alienation” is formulated from the verb “alienate”, which means “to cause somebody to feel different from others and not part of a group.” Therefore, “alienation”, which is a noun, means “the state of somebody’s feeling being different from others and not part of a group.” The important meaning feature from the definition is the state of being “different” and “not part of a group” (1995, p. 28).

B.5. Formalistic Approach
Before going deeper to the explanatory description of the formalistic approach, first of all, it is wise to understand the word “formalistic” itself. “Formalistic” comes from the word “form”. The denotative meaning of “form” is “the shape of somebody or something; a person or thing of which only the shape can be seen” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 1995, p. 463). Therefore, logically, the aim of a formalistic perspective is to be concerned with the shape of body of something, in this case, the poem(s). Further understanding will reveal that analyzing a poem using the formalistic approach means to focus more on the internal physical appearance (the body) of the poem, relating it to the intrinsic elements building the poem instead of discussing the extrinsic ones, as Guerin suggests (1999, p. 73),
“We do not know if the poem concerns a real-life situation or totally a fictive one. We do not know whether the author took some similar real-life situation or incident that he or she then adapted and transmuted in to a poem. We know only the poem itself, a short piece of richly textured literary art that bears up well under close analysis…and have analyzed it by using the formalistic approach to literature.”

The intrinsic elements can be divided into four elements, namely: language devices, tone and theme, musical devices, and pattern. In further look, each element still has its own sub-element(s). Meanwhile, extrinsic elements, which include the discussion of the external factors forming the poem, are not included in the analysis using the formalistic approach.

C. ANALYSIS
In this part, the writer will apply the analytical perspective of formalistic approach towards the poem in the effort of revealing the sense of alienation by analyzing the symbols, the point of view, and the rhyming pattern of the poem. The analysis is done stanza per stanza. The three elements (symbols, point of view, and rhyme) will be discussed contextually with the particular stanza being analyzed, and, if necessary, with the other related stanza(s).

a. The First Stanza
a.1. Symbols
1. Church: This image appears frequently in each stanza. This shows that this diction is prominent in the poem. Presumably, “church” symbolizes power, or centralistic authority: the power to keep, to take care, to shelter the people under its absolute control. The quality of being an absolute centralistic authority is shown by the clause “The chime of the bells, the church’s clock striking eight…cries down the babel of children still playing in the hay”. Clearly, the chiming bells is possessed by the church, and along with the “church’s clock” which “strikes eight”, it “cries down” the people who are still doing their activities. This shows that the daily life of the people living in the little town in the evening is controlled by the “church”. Even stronger, in line 3, it is described that “the church draws nearer upon us, gentle and great”. This means that the power of the “church” begins to be wider and wider slowly but surely.
2. Shadow: This diction is the symbol of the influence of the power toward the people under the control. It is stated in line 4 that the “church” comes “in shadow, covering us up with her grey”. Here, the infinite verb “covering” us “up” shows an act of holding a collective population of the “little town”.
a.2. Point of View
1. “Us”: This first person plural pronoun, acting as the object of the sentence, indicates that the narrator refers to a group of people in which he or she is included. This is the first time the narrator introduce him/herself as an individual included in a group of people. Again, the sense of collectiveness occurs.
2. “Her”: The narrator calls the “church” with a third singular person possessive pronoun “her”. This gives readers a sense of feminine quality given to the image “church”. This perhaps will lead readers to a next level of interpretation of the symbolic meaning contained by the word “church”.
a.3. Rhyme
The rhyme in the first stanza is in a predictable conventional pattern of a poem. It is presented in ab-ab. The last syllable of the first line (“eight”) rhymes with the last syllable of the third line (“great”). The last syllable of the second line (“hay”) rhymes with the last syllable of the fourth line (“grey”). However, it is interesting that the third line seems to be forcefully cut from its real sentence, “the church draws nearer upon us, gentle and great in shadow”. The fact is that the rhyme is maintained by cutting “gentle and great in shadow” into “gentle and great” and “in shadow”. This is done to have “great”, which rhymes with “eight”, as the last syllable of the third line. This clumsiness continues to happen in the rest of the last two stanzas and even becomes more significant in the last stanza.

b. The Second Stanza
b.1. Symbols
1. Houses: This image symbolizes a group of people who live under the control of the “fleece of shadow” of the “church”. “Houses” is presented in a plural form. We might remind us to the sense of collectiveness presented earlier in the use of “us” as seen in the third line in the previous stanza.
2. Asleep: This word symbolizes comfort. In line 5 and 6, we are presented a metaphor “like drowsy creatures the houses fall asleep under the fleece of shadow, as in between”. It is clear that “drowsy” represents the state of exhaustion experienced by the “houses”. The sense of comfort seen in the word “asleep” is strengthened by the figure “fleece” which covers the tired “houses” in its warmth.
b.2. Point of View
1. Their and them: These third person plural pronouns refer to the third person plural perspective of the narrator. It is interesting that, again, the pronoun is performed in its plural form, which leads to the sense of being collective instead of individual.
b.3. Rhyme
The rhyme in the second stanza is also presented in a well pattern. The pattern in the second stanza is cd-cd. The fifth line is finalized by the word “asleep”, which rhymes with the monosyllabic word ending the seventh line, “keep”. The sixth line is closed by the function word “between”, which rhymes with the past participle ending the eighth line, “unseen”.

c. The Third Stanza
c.1. Symbols
1. A Murmur: This image seems to be considered as the symbol of something which is hardly heard, and, therefore, vaguely exist. This image may support the sense of being alienated since an isolated figure is commonly veiled by the bounding perimeters locking him or her.
2. The Sleeping Brood: This image symbolizes a group of people who live in a particular area in the “little town” which is still under the control of the “shadow” of the “church”. From this exact unit of individuals, there will appear one “creature” which experiences the alienation.
2. The Church: Again, as one of the most prominent image in this poem, the “church” appears particularly in this stanza as the emphasis of its symbolic role as the absolute power which then acting as the character imposing the status of alienation to the figure “I”, as seen in line 10 and 11, “…Why is it she should exclude/Me so distinctly from sleeping the sleep I’d love the best?” Up to this state, conclusively, the image “church” turns into an antagonist since one of the character of the poem, represented by the first person pronoun “I”, suffers a state of being alienated caused by the “church” for unidentified reason(s) – that is why the last two lines of the poem are presented in a form of interrogative sentence.

c.2. Point of View
1. “I” and “Me”: The occurrence of the first person singular point of view in this stanza seems to be quite shocking. From the perspective of the analysis of point of view, the presence of singular pronouns more likely to alienated this particular stanza from the previous two. This is because the two previous stanzas clearly use the plural pronouns which symbolize the sense of collectivity instead of individuality. This shocking change strengthens the sense of alienation.
2. “She”: This third person singular pronoun refers to the “church”. This female pronoun is also used in the first stanza as the pronoun representing the same figure, “the church”. Again, unique use of singular pronouns in this last stanza is what empowers the sense of alienation in the poem, which is actually also strengthened by the use of the verb “exclude” and “distinctly”.

c.3. Rhyme
Though still applying the same concept of rhyme pattern, the third stanza also becomes the climax of clumsiness – as has been stated before in the analysis of the first stanza. The form of the rhyme is presented as ef-ef, where the ninth line rhymes with the eleventh, and the tenth rhymes with the twelfth. However, in a deeper look, in the tenth and eleventh line the clumsiness performed in line 3 is repeated in even a stranger way. Take a look at the description below:

I wish the church had covered me up with the rest ->->
In the home-place. Why is it she should exclude ->->->
Me so distinctly from sleeping the sleep I’d love best->

The number of the arrows shows the level of clumsiness of the phrase cutting in the effort of maintaining the rhyme. “With the rest in the home place” is the adverb of the past time verb “had covered me up”. In the writing, the phrase cutting is done separating “with the rest” to “in the home place”. Moreover, the clumsiest cutting happens in “why is it she should exclude me so distinctly…” The first person object “me” is alienated from its main verb “should exclude” to save the rhyme pattern. These facts are what alienate the last stanza from the other previous two in the form of the rhyme pattern.

D. CONCLUSION
It is interesting that, actually, by observing and analyzing several intrinsic device of a poem, one is able to provide a hard data to support and justify the possible message contained in a poem. In this paper, the writer figures out that the use of symbols, point of view, and rhyming pattern support the sense of alienation that occur in D. H. Lawrence’s The Little Town in the Evening.
D. BIBLIOGRAPHY

1.Annas, Pamela. J. How Poetry Works.
2.Guerrin, Wilfred L. 1999. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Oxford University Press.
3.Hornby, A. S., 1995. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford Univeristy Press.
4.Lawrence, D. H. 1928. The Collected Poems of D. H. Lawrence. London: William Heinemann Ltd.