Putting Transitivity to the Test: A Stylistic Analysis of Edward Lowbury’s Poem “The Huntsman”

Abstract

The basic aim of this paper is to stylistically analyze Edward Lowbury’s poem “The Huntsman” from the point of view of Halliday’s transitivity (1985, 1994, 2004, 2014) model. As transitivity is a grammatical feature and is considered the basic approach of stylistics (analysis); the ideational, textual and the interpersonal facets are the major functions of the language. There are six processes of the system of transitivity. This analysis will be beneficial for understanding the mental, verbal and material processes of transitivity model used by the poet in his poem. As the theme of the poem is that we should think before speaking, so this research is helpful to analyze the style and structure of Edward Lowbury’s poetry and different concepts to convey and fortify this concept. Themes and views are conveyed by the poet through different stylistic techniques and devices.