In other words, Shakespeare's writing mimicked all different types of speech in order to convey the linguistic conventions of the broad cross-sections of society that existed during his time.Īrnold's imitation of Shakespeare's register, then, is complicated-to Arnold's 18th century readers, most or all of Shakespeare's writing would have seemed simply to be high diction, and thus Arnold's imitation would have come across, too, as high diction. While today's readers generally think of Shakespearean register as high diction because of his elegant, archaic vocabulary and syntax, Shakespeare actually employed a whole range of different registers in each of his plays, which he varied as the plot and mood developed. I'll look forward to hearing from you." Low diction would be, "Thanks man. It would be a privilege to contribute to the betterment of this institution." Neutral diction would sound like, "Thank you for your time. For example, if writing a cover letter for a job, you would likely use high diction: "Thank you for your consideration. Register refers to whether a piece of writing is formal or informal, or whether the writer is using "high," "neutral," or "low" diction. RegisterĪnother aspect of diction that Arnold borrows from Shakespeare is his register, which means level of speech. In other words, by choosing and arranging his words in a particular way Arnold can make his poem seems to belong to a different era and take on the lush style of Shakespeare's prose. He also describes Shakespeare's brilliance in the lofty terms typical of Shakespeare's own writing-for example, he writes that the playwright was such a transcendent visionary that he dwelt in the "heaven of heavens" and knew the "stars and sunbeams." Arnold makes another move typical of Shakespeare when he spells "foiled" as "foil'd" and "unguessed" as "unguess'd." The insertion of the apostrophe to shorten both words is called elision, and it's something that Shakespeare did frequently, particularly in order to maintain a consistent number of syllables in each line of verse.Īrnold, here, is carefully modeling his word choice after Shakespeare's to create a particular effect. The first thing to notice is that Arnold mimics Shakespeare's distinctive word choice -most notably, he uses the formal "thou" (as in "thou art" and "thou didst"), which was no longer in common use when Arnold was writing. Self-school'd, self-scann'd, self-honour'd, self-secure,ĭidst tread on earth unguess'd at.-Better so!Īll pains the immortal spirit must endure,Īll weakness which impairs, all griefs which bow,įind their sole speech in that victorious brow. Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place,Īnd thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know, Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea, We ask and ask-Thou smilest and art still, First read the poem below (paying attention to Arnold's choice and arrangement of words) and then continue on for an explanation of each aspect of Arnold's diction. In this poem, Arnold pays tribute to Shakespeare by consciously adopting Shakespeare's diction in three specific ways: word choice, register, and tone. The poem "Shakespeare," by the 18th century English poet Matthew Arnold, is a particular good case study for investigating and understanding the key elements of diction. Here's how to pronounce diction: dik-shun A Closer Look at Dictionĭiction can seem like a very broad term that includes all of a writer's style, but it's possible to break down the concept by looking at some specific examples. This guide focuses on the literary definition of diction, which has more to do with word choice.
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