Literary Techniques in “Dämmerung” by Simon Armitage

Defamiliarization is a literary device which enables readers to identify ordinary things

in strange ways. Russian literary critic Viktor Shklovsky states that, the technique of art is to
make things or objects “unfamiliar”. Art can be described as a way of experiencing the
artfulness of an object. Therefore, the object itself is not important. Authors use
defamiliarization to demonstrate the point between reality and their art. According to the
authors, literary works are always pieces of art even though they are often blessed for faithful
reflections of real life. By defamiliarizing or in other words, by making strange, they remind
their readers of this fact. Shklovsky considers that; when we experience the routine, familiar
things all the time in our lives, our lives become habitual and automated. Automatization of
life never arouse fresh reactions in us and it is not living. Thus, art can be a reaction against
automatized perceptions of people. Literariness must be the key factor in art and literary
language is different from daily language. The aim of this essay is to locate and demonstrate
various types of literary techniques as defamiliarization examples used in the poem
“Dämmerung” by Simon Armitage.

Shklovsky claims that, defamiliarization can also be presented through the use of
another foreign language. This will enable reader to make an extra effort to understand and
the reader will not only be a passive one, but also be an active participant to decode the
strange and different words. The title of the poem “Dämmerung” is a German word which
means “twilight” and it is also written in the last line of the poem. Although the poem is
written in English, there are German words like the title “Dämmerung”, the name of the town
“Holzminden, in lower Saxony” and the name of the dish as “Bauernschnitzel”. The reader
should pay extra attention to understand these German words.

“Dämmerung” is a poem written by English poet, Simon Armitage. The poem starts
with the line “In later life I retired from poetry” and this line can be seen as an example of
defamilarization. In this line, a poet is described as an ordinary person who can retire from
poetry, yet in fact, a poet cannot be defined as a poet if he/she stops writing poetry.
Throughout the poem, nothing more is mentioned about poetry therefore, we can say that a
poet’s life is being defamiliarized by making it strange.

Ambiguity is another technique used by poets to defamiliarize things. In this poem

ambiguities slow down our perception of it. When we read the third line of the poem; “into a
family restaurant” we see that Armitage mentions about a family restaurant and this raises a
set of questions in the reader’s mind, such as; Which family? Where is that family? Through
the end of the poem, there is not any reference to that family. Maybe the poet feels lonely and
tries to cover his loneliness by using that phrase.

In the second stanza, descriptive language is used to describe the restaurant. The
restaurant is described as a traditional, old one with old equipments inside it. These things
may symbolize the poet’s yearning to old days or may be the symbol of the last part of the
people as they are trying to prove that they are alive and as it was mentioned in the first line
“in later life”.

It was small and traditional:

dark wood panelling, deer antlers,
linen tablecloths and red candles,
one beer tap on the bar

Conversation framework is another literary device applied to deviate from the

generally accepted language rules of the poetry. In the poem, lines “Mind if I join you?” and
“Are we dead yet?” can be seen as examples of conversation framework and this technique
defamiliarize it. Another example of defamiliarization can be seen in in the lines;

“Are we dead yet?” someone would ask.

Then with a plastic toothpick
I’d draw blood from my little finger
to prove we were still among the living.

Is it possible for people who are alive to ask that question? Another question can be;
how can a person try to prove that he/she is alive by drawing blood from his/her finger with a
plastic toothpick? These lines make the meaning strange therefore they may be shown as the
examples of defamiliarization.

When it comes to the form of the poem, samples of defamiliarization can be identified
easily. “Dämmerung” is written in the form of seven stanzas. Anecdotal language is used in
the poem. It is as if the poet is describing some of the past events of his life to the reader. The
poem starts as a monologue and from the speaker’s point of view but through the last stanzas
we see conversation framework. In the poem we cannot see a specific rhythmic pattern, it is
like someone is telling us a story. Sentences or clauses are continuing without any pause, not
only between lines but also between stanzas. Therefore, the capitalization rules are not taken
into account. Simple past tense is used through the poem to tell the past events and the
language is colloquial. All these characteristics of the poem make it an artful material.

İbrahim ŞAHİN
202052114003