Deconstructing the signs of metaphors : the impetus of unlimited semiosis in poetry

Abstract

 This study involves a deconstruction of connected metaphors in poetry to show that their meanings arise out of the process of unlimited semiosis. I aim to find out whether the process of unlimited semiosis in poetry is driven by the iconicity, symbolicity, denotations or connotations of the signs involved. In this study, three sets of connected metaphors are analyzed: consecutive lines in T. S. Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’, lines across William Blake’s ‘Auguries of Innocence’, and a projection of a metaphor in the same poem by characters in the television drama series, Penny Dreadful. A bottom-up approach is adopted, moving on from connected metaphors identified in consecutive lines to those identified across a poem, before moving beyond the level of the poem to examine how television characters interpret the same poem and relate it to the world they live in, creating yet another connected metaphor of their own. Each set of connected metaphors is organized using the Peircean triad as the framework for analysis. Barthes’ concepts of denotation and connotation and Peirce’s concepts of iconicity and symbolicity are employed during the analysis. It is found that the process of unlimited semiosis is driven by symbolicity in all three cases, while connotations also serve as an impetus for connected metaphors located within a poem. Further research is needed as my findings are by no means necessarily representative of how other connected metaphors work and connected metaphors have to be studied on a case-by-case basis.