Stylistic Analysis Morphological Level: When You Are Old

By William Butler Yeats

Group 8

Silvia Efani Saragih 200705089

Windy Octalin Simanjuntak 200705093

Tiarma Sihotang 200705137

Rifdah Aatikah Manurung 200705031

Cut Putri Alivia 200705145

INTRODUCTION

Stylistic analysis of a text differs from a 'literary' analysis in that it requires a higher
degree of objectivity and relies on the researcher's expertise in linguistics. In stylistics, the goal is
to elucidate how the words within a text evoke the emotions and reactions we experience when
reading them. The objective here is to illustrate the process of conducting a stylistic analysis of a
literary text, demonstrating how such an analysis can be effectively carried out.
In this paper, researchers will discuss stylistic analysis at the morphological level.
Literary stylistics, as an interdisciplinary field, examines literary styles through the application of
linguistic methods and tools. It is contended that the primary objective of literary stylistics is to
uncover linguistic evidence that can be used for critically assessing literary texts. When delving
into the research concerning the morphological layer of stylistics, the focus often lies in
exploring the researchers' perspectives and approaches to the study of morphology. Stylistics is a
subfield of applied linguistics, that involves examining and understanding texts of various kinds
and spoken language through the lens of their linguistic and tonal characteristics. In this context,
style refers to the distinct variations in language that different individuals employ or that arise in
various situations and contexts.
defines morphology as the aspect of grammar that explores the connections between
words, encompassing the morphemes that constitute them and the organization of words. On the
other hand, characterizes morphology as the examination of a language's basic forms. From these
expert explanations, we can deduce that morphology involves the study of the structural
composition of words within a language.
‘When You Are Old’ is probably the earliest of William Butler Yeats’s truly great poems,
written in 1891 when he was still in his mid-twenties and published the following year. William
Butler Yeats (1865-1939) stands among the most eminent Irish poets in history. His initial
collection, "Crossways," debuted in 1889 when he was in his mid-twenties, displaying a marked
influence of Romanticism in his early poetry. As his career progressed and the literary landscape
evolved with the advent of modernism in the early 20th century, Yeats maintained his
commitment to traditional poetic structures and rhyme patterns. However, his work took on a
more political, allusive, and elliptical character during this period.
To fully grasp the meaning of "When You Are Old," it's essential for readers to
comprehend the romantic history of Yeats. For many years, he harbored deep affection for the
enchanting actress Maud Gonne. Unfortunately, Gonne either could not or would not reciprocate
his feelings, a painful rejection for William, who was profoundly smitten with her. This poem is a
direct address to Gonne, and notably, Yeats refers to himself as "Love." In this way, "Love" takes
on a personified form as the author himself. William implores Gonne to contemplate her life's
conclusion, when her fame and beauty have faded into the recesses of memory. His words
resonate widely because they allow people, whether young or old, to envision themselves at
different stages of life. Those in their youth can pause to imagine their future aging selves, while
the elderly can reflect upon the days of their own youth. This poem's universality lies in its
ability to evoke these relatable sentiments in a broad audience.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The actual definition of stylistics is the breaking of predetermined linguistic norms. The
relationship between language and artistic purpose is made clear by Leech in his explanation of
stylistics as a linguistic approach to literature. K.T. KHADER says that studying a text in-depth
to generate a certain style effect achieved through certain word selections. Stylistics' objective is
not just to describe the formal aspects of texts while also demonstrating their practical
significance for text comprehension; or demonstrate the relationship between literary text and
language consequences where appropriate.

Morphology is the study of word creation and structure. Morphemes are the smallest
units of meaning (Andrea Krott, 2001). Morphemes are naturally classified into two types: those
that can stand alone ('free morphemes') and those that cannot. 'Bound morphemes' are
morphemes that must be attached to other morphemes (Baayen, 2005). In general, word
formation is concerned with two sorts of rules: 'derivational morpheme' and 'derivational
morpheme'. 'Inflectional morphemes' have only one meaning (Lieber, 1991). Never modify the
root while performing grammatical functions. Furthermore, the lexical level is concerned with
items of vocabulary and word usage in a text.

In the title of researcher The Search for Truth: An Analysis of the Derivational Affixes
Found in the Selected Poems of Fernando A. Bernardo’s The Silent Voice of Your Soul works
contain four formations of derivational morphemes that were identified during the study, include
the production of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The words with derivational affixes were
used to collect data for this study. The data for this study were derived from Fernando A.
Bernardo's poems in his book The Silent Voice of Your Soul.

The poems under consideration are The Search For Truth and The Ember and Floodlight
Of Life. In general, the purpose of this study is to examine the derivational affixes used in a
selection of Fernando A. Bernardo's poetry from his 2003 book, The Silent Voice of Your Soul. It
specifically tries to: (1) pinpoint the affixes used in Fernando Bernardo's poetry "The Search for
Truth and The Ember"; and The researchers employed descriptive qualitative content analysis for
this study.

The poem Stylistic Analysis Of Ted Hughes’ Poem: “The Casualty” will be stylistically
examined in this article. This analysis covers a variety of stylistic levels, including phonological,
morphological, lexico-syntactic, and graphological levels.

On the Stylistic Analysis of William Blake’s Poem: “Night”, use Blake's "Night"
expresses a deep sense of the potential demise of nature as well as awareness of the
environmental catastrophe. Blake's poems not only emphasized the urgent necessity for humans
to be conscious of the environmental disaster in Britain, but they also prominently featured the
speaker and readers.

The basis of our melancholy stems from "days that are no more," according to a stylistic
analysis of Alfreight Tennyson's poem idle tears. He strikes a balance between pictures of hope
and images of depression throughout the poem. The first line of this poem makes reference to
tears that are "idle," but not in the physical meaning of "motionlessness" that we generally use
the word for (tears do have motion), but rather in a more general sense. Idle in this context refers
to being useless, producing nothing, or causing nothing to happen.

To make it understandable and to make his objectives clear, the poet utilizes
straightforward language. The poet makes the poem more efficient at expressing his ideas and
demonstrating the beauty of God's creation by utilizing various literary methods, such as simile
and personification. Consequently, "TREE" is a poem that demonstrates the poet's religious
belief and beauty of the natural world. According to this study, stylistics has demonstrated that
there is a difference between poetic and nonpoetic language when defining literature, language
that is modified in ways that signal it as separate from normal English.

RESEARCH QUESTION

In order to do the stylistic analysis of the text, the following questions are formulated

1. What are the words forms based on the kinds of morphology stylistic on William Butler
Yeats’ poem “when you are old”?
2. How morphology stylistics contribute to understand the theme of the poem?

RESEARCH METHODS

Researchers in the study of Analysis of When You Are Old Poetry by William Butler
Yeats used descriptive qualitative research methods with stylistics analysis. Qualitative research,
according to Sarah (2013), "focuses on the thick description of contextual and frequently comes
from situated issues in the area." The explanation of the research methodology is frequently
based on the experiences, interactions, and observations that were recorded in writing during the
data collection, analysis, study, and reflecting processes.
 This research was designed to analyses on morphology stylistics and the meaning in
When You Are Old Poetry by William Butler Yeats. The data itself appeared in the form of
discourses, sentences, clauses, words and even morphemes from the text of the poem. The steps
first, the researcher searched the poetry and read the poetry When You Are Old Poetry by
William Butler Yeats. Second, the researcher selected the poetry and understanding every line in
that poetry. Afterward, the researcher identified the kinds of morphology stylistic that used in
When You Are Old Poetry by William Butler Yeats morphology stylistics and the meaning of the
poetry, then calculate the data.

Qualitative research is a method to explore and understand the meaning that some
individuals or groups think comes from social or human problems (Creswell, 2013). The final
report of a qualitative study has a flexible structure or framework. The perspective used in this
study is inductive style, which focuses on individual meanings, and translates the complexity of a
problem. The data and information that have been obtained from the area are taken for the
meaning and concept, presented in descriptive analytics and generally without using numbers
because they prioritize the processes that occur in the field.

In general, this type of research includes information about the main phenomenon that is
being explored in a study, research participants, and the location of the study. Qualitative
research can also state the research design chosen.

In the world of education, qualitative research has the objective of describing the process
of educational activities based on what is in the field as study material to find shortcomings and
weaknesses so that efforts can be determined to improve them; analyzing a symptom, facts, and
educational events in the field; compile a hypothesis related to the concepts and principles of
education based on information and data that occur in the field.

DISSCUSION AND ANALYSIS

Affixes are bound morphemes or a word element a prefix, infix and suffix that can be
attached to a base or root to form a new word or a new form of a word. Acording to Ebest, et al
(2004: 434). A prefix is an element added in front of a root word that changes the word's
meaning. The official definition of an affix is "a bound inflectional or derivational element, as a
prefix, infix, or suffix, added to a base or stem to form a fresh stem or a word, as in -ed added to
want to form wanted, or im- added to possible to form impossible."

Thus, a root word—a word that may stand alone without an affix—describes most letters
added to its beginning or end to alter its meaning. The prefix im-, which is added to the root
word "possible" in that definition, alters the term's meaning.

A suffix is a type of affix that is placed at the end of a root word (or 'base') to change its
meaning or grammatical function. Suffixes are essential as they help us to adapt words. Suffixes
are often used to change the word class of a word. According to. Ebest, et al (2004:492) a suffix
consists of one or more letters or syllables added to the end of a word. For example, we can
change the adjective 'excited' to the adverb 'excitedly' using the suffix -ly. We can also create
comparative and superlative forms of the adjective by attaching the suffixes -er or -est to a root
word eg. 'fast' to 'faster' and 'fastest'.

Prefix Meaning Word

over- Excessively, extra, overhead
outer, above
a- without amid
Suffix Meaning Word
-ing verb form (present nodding, changing,
participle and gerund) bending, glowing
-ly adverb ending slowly, sadly
-s plural eyes, shadows,
moments, sorrows,
bars, mountains, stars
-ed past-tense verbs loved
(weak verbs)
-y characterized by beauty
Sentence Free Morpheme Analysis

When In this line, there are ten free morphemes. The word
You “when” is a conjunction. It expresses the timing of
Are events, actions, or situations. The word “you” is a
Old pronoun. You are used to refer to one or more
And individuals, either directly or indirectly, and it is
Grey typically the second-person pronoun in English. The
And word “are” is a verb. The words “and” are conjunctions.
Full The word “full” is an adjective”. The word “of” is a
Of preposition. The word “sleep” is a verb. The line "When
sleep you are old and grey and full of sleep" is the opening
line of the poem "When You Are Old" by W.B. Yeats. In
this line, the poet is describing a future scenario or
condition. In essence, this opening line of the poem sets
the stage for a contemplative and reflective tone. The
poet is inviting the reader to imagine a time in the future
when they have grown old, with the wear and tear of life
showing in their appearance, and when they may be
more inclined to rest and sleep. This sets the context for
the rest of the poem, which explores themes of love,
regret, and the passage of time.
And nodding by And The word “and” is conjuction. The word “by” is a
the fire, take By preposition. The words “fire” and “book” are nouns. The
down this book, The words “take” and “down” are verbs. The word “this” is
Fire demonstrative. This line can be seen as an invitation or a
Take request to the person being addressed to do the
Down following: while in a drowsy or contemplative state by
This the fire, they should take a particular book down from
Book its place. This action could symbolize the idea of
 reflecting on the past or revisiting memories through
literature.

And slowly read, And The words “and” are conjuction. The words “read”,
and dream of the Read “dream”, and “look” are verbs. The word “of” is
soft look And preposition. The word “the” is article. The word “soft” is
Dream adjective. The line can be interpreted as an invitation for
Of the person to engage with a specific book or text in a
The deliberate and thoughtful manner. It encourages them to
Soft not only read the words on the page but also to let their
imagination wander, envisioning the emotions and
Look
memories connected to the content.

Your eyes had Your The words “your” and “their” are pronouns. The word
once, and of their “once” is an adverb. The word “and” is conjunction. The
Once
shadows deep; word “of” is prepositions. The word “deep” is an
And adjective. The line can be interpreted as an exploration

Of of the person's past and the emotions or expressions that

were once evident in their eyes. It suggests that the
Their
person's eyes held a certain depth of emotion or
Deep experience that is now a distant memory.

How many loved many The word “many” is a quantifier. The word “glad” is an
your moments of Glad adjective. The word “of” is a preposition. The word
glad grace of “grace” is a noun. The word “your” is a pronoun. The
Grace line essentially prompts the person to reflect on their
Your past and think about the number of people who
appreciated and admired their moments of joy and
elegance. It emphasizes the idea that in their youth, the
person had moments of beauty and happiness that others
found captivating and lovable.
And Loved your And The word “and” is a conjunction, “your” is a pronoun,
beauty with love Your “beauty” and “love” are nouns, “with” is prepositions,
false or true Beauty “false” and “true” are adjectives, and the last is the word
With “or” is a conjuction. The line highlights the idea that the
Love person's beauty has attracted both genuine and
False superficial affections over time. It implies that some
Or people may have loved the person for who they truly
True were, while others may have been drawn to their
physical appearance without deeper or lasting feelings.
But no man loved But The word “but” is a conjunction, “no” is an adjective,
the pilgrim soul No “man”, “pilgrim” and “soul” are nouns, “the” is an
in you Man article, the last is the word of “you” which is a pronoun.
The The line carries a poignant message, suggesting that
Pilgrim despite the person's external beauty and moments of
Soul charm, no one truly connected with or loved the deeper,
In more profound aspects of their character or soul. It
You highlights the idea that genuine, deep understanding and
love are rare and precious.
And loved the And The word “and” is a conjunction, “the” is an article, “of”
sorrows of your The is a preposition, “your” is a pronoun, and “face” is a
changing face Sorrows noun. The line conveys a more profound and
Of compassionate type of love. It suggests that there were
Your individuals who not only loved the person when they
Face were youthful and beautiful but also loved and
embraced the person's sorrows and the changes that time
brought to their appearance. This type of love
acknowledges the person's vulnerabilities and accepts
them as part of their identity.
And bending And The word “and” is conjunction, “down” and “inside” are
down inside the Down adverbs, and “the” is an article. The line creates a vivid
glowing bars Inside image of someone leaning or bending down near a warm
The and inviting source of light and heat. This imagery adds
to the poem's atmosphere of coziness and reflection. It
 can be seen as an invitation for the person being
addressed to engage in introspection and contemplation.
Murmur, a little A The word “a” is an article, “little” and “love” are
sadly, how love Little adjectives, and the last word “fled” is verb. The line
fled Love captures a sense of quiet reflection and a bittersweet
Fled acknowledgment of the passage of time and the fading
of love. It invites the person to softly express their
feelings about the departure of love, recognizing that
such reflections can be tinged with a sense of sadness.
And pace upon And The word “and” is a conjunction, “pace” is a noun,
the mountains Pace “upon” is a preposition, and “the” is an article. The line
overhead Upon paints a vivid picture of someone or something, perhaps
The a person, walking or pacing atop a mountain range. The
use of "overhead" adds a sense of grandeur and vastness
to the image, as if the mountains are an imposing and
distant presence.
And hid his face a And The word “and” is a conjunction, “hid” is a verb, “his”
crowd of stars. Hid is a pronoun, “face” and “crowd “are nouns, “a” is an
His article, and “of” is a preposition. This line contributes to
Face the poem's theme of reflection on love, time, and the
A mysteries of existence. It invites the reader to
Crowd contemplate the idea of disappearing into the vastness of
of the cosmos, perhaps suggesting a transcendence of
earthly concerns or a sense of eternity.
CONCLUSION

Yeat's poem "When You Are Old" was among his most well-known. Many believe that
this poem emphasizes the speaker, who is likely Yeats, and his previous lover's unfulfilled love.
Yeat's deep love for Maud Gone is eloquently expressed in the poem When You Are Old, which
greatly affects readers. Yeats, the greatest poet of the modern century, merits Thomas Stearns
Eliot's high praise. Readers are better able to sense the poet's intense feelings after carefully
analyzing them. The poet uses alliteration, assonance, and consonance among other rhyming
devices. Rhyme dramatically gives the poetry a sense of melodic beauty.

His use of sparse sentences, monosyllabic syllables, and Anglo-Saxon terms gives the
poem a concise, delicate feel. The poem also conveys a straightforward message about life, love,
and development, emphasizing the need to view the world objectively and to recognize that true
love is a gift that should not be taken for granted. It goes to the person who receives it, just like
any gift that is not accepted.

This poem offers a warning to us readers to be observant of true love and what it can
bring because the love that is ignored and or not reciprocated can quickly become regrettable. In
addition, the poet expresses his feelings and emotions more completely and intensely by using a
series of rhetorical devices and techniques of expression accurately and properly. By reading the
poem, readers can quickly feel Yeats's love for Maud Gonne and the sorrow that he is refused by
his beloved one.
REFERENCE

Asad, A., & Batool, N. (2020). Stylistic Analysis of Mohsin Hamid ’ s Story “ A Beheading .” Pakistan
Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (PJMR), 1(1), 25–37.

Batool, A., Naheed, R., Khalid, A., & Khan, A. B. (2015). Stylistic Analysis of Alfread Tennyson’s Poem
Tears Idle Tears. An International Peer-Reviewed Journal, 7(3), 194–196. www.iiste.org

Campus, C., & City, T. (2017). Stylistics Analysis on Poem “ Trees ” Joyce. 7(11), 655–661.

Dr Oliver Tearle. (n.d.). A Summary and Analysis of W. B. Yeats’ ‘When You Are Old.’ INTERESTING
LITERATURE.

Gupta, D. (2009). Chapter I. 1999, 6–27.

Imran, M., Ansar, M., Baig, Y., Alamdar Nabi, S., & Allan Poe, E. (2021). Stylistic Analysis of the Poem
“A Dream Within A Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe. 20, 228–237. http://ilkogretim-online.org

Jamie Jenson. (n.d.). When You Are Old William Butler Yeats. Poem Analysis.

Khan, Abdul Bari, S. R. & G. S. (2014). Stylistic Analysis of the Poem “The Onset” by Robert Frost.
European Journal of Research and Reflection in Arts and Humanities, 2(1), 1–5.

Khan et al. (2014). Stylistic Analysis of William Blake ’ s Poem : “ Night .” Journal of ELT and Applied
Linguistics ( JEL TAL), 2(4), 14–22.

Memon, M. I., Un, F., Tunio, N., & Awan, M. (2021). Stylistic Analysis of the Poem “If” by Rudyard
Kipling. February. www.englishjournals.com

Poormozaffari, D., & Ahmadinasab, F. (2021). Quarterly Literary criticism An Overview of Research
Findings in Stylistics : A Critical Study of Morphological Layer. 14(53).

RESEARCH ARTICLE STYLISTIC ANALYSIS OF TED HUGHES ’ POEM : “ THE CASUALTY ”

KOMAL MUKHTAR Research Journal of English Language and Literature ( RJELAL ). (2017).
5(4).

Roswinda, L. (2022). Stylistic Analysis on Smile You Nutter! Poetry By Darren Hobson. 9–17.

Bhandari, P. (2020, June 19). What Is Qualitative Research? | Methods & Examples. Retrieved from
qualitative-research: https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/qualitative-research/

Bhat, A. (n.d.). Qualitative Research Methods: Types & Examples. Retrieved from qualitative-research-
methods: https://www.questionpro.com/blog/qualitative-research-methods/