Stylistic classification of the english vocabulary

b) Poetic Words

Poetic words are used mainly in poetry. They stand between terms and archaic words. They are close to terms because they are monosemantic and they are close to ar­chaic words because they are out of use. For ex: steed (horse), woe (sorrow), to behold (to see). Poetic words claim to be of higher rank.

Not all English poetry makes use of "poeticisms". In the history of English literature there were periods, which were characterized by protests against the use such con­ventional symbols. The periods of classicism and roman­ticism were rich in fresn poetic terms. Foeiic words and expressions were called upon to create the special elevated atmosphere of poetry.

When used in the text poetic words call on a certain type of mood. Sometimes they are used to produce a sati­rical effect. They are said to have emotive meanings. They colour the utterance with loftiness, but they fail to produce a genuine feeling of delight, as they are too hackneyed.

The use of poetic words does not create the atmosphe­re of poetry in the true sense. This is probably due to their very low degree of predictability.

Poetic words are not freely built. There is however one means of creating new poetic words recognized as productive in present-day English, that is the use of a con­tracted form of a word instead of the full one, e.g., drear instead of dreary, scant - scanty.

Sometimes the reverse process leads to the birth of a poetism, e.g., vasty - vast. 'The vasty deep", i.e. the oce­an; "paly" - pale.

Poetical words and set expressions make the utterance understandable only to a limited number of readers. Poeti­cal language is sometimes called poetical jargon.