Technique as the Tool for Discovering and Creating Meaning in William Wordsworth’s “It is a Beauteous Evening” and Shamloo’s “Lohe Goor”

Document Type : Rhetoric

Author

Assistant Professor of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Qom, Qom, Iran.

10.22091/jls.2026.15010.1771

Abstract

The dichotomy of form and meaning has long been a matter of argument among scholars. Before the twentieth century it was believed that form is decorative. In the early decades of the twentieth century, with the rise of Russian Formalism and the American New Criticism, form moved to the centre of the field of literary criticism. For the formalists form and technique was the essence of art. Russian formalists believed that only form deserved to be investigated; meaning for them was not significant. To the American New Critics, however, form helped to discover meaning. Without form, they suggested, meaning could not be flourished and developed. The present article is going to explore the importance of form and technique using the New Critical strategy of close reading of two poems: One  by William Wordsworth’s poem “It is a Beauteous Evening” and the other Ahmad Shamloo’s “Lohe Goor” (Epitaph). Based on Mark Schorer’s article “Technique as Discovery” the forms of the poems are analyzed.  It is suggested that in the poems meaning is both dependent on form and created by it. Any other form than the ones developed by the authors could lead to completely different meanings. The poems are organically held together by  pivotal figures which are extended all through the poem controlling and developing the major themes of the poems.
Introduction
Poets, like philosophers, have always sought to discover the meaning of life. However there is a succinct difference in  the way these two groups convey their ideas. Literary critics refer to these difference as form i.e.  the various literary techniques poets use to both convey their meaning and affect their readers as much as possible. Therefore, the study of form is tantamount to delicate analysis of literary techniques used in works of art to reveal how a work achieves its aim of catching the attention of the audience. In twentieth century the New Critics underscored the form and its significance in distinguishing literary texts from other forms of written texts. The present article relies on a prominent  figure of American New Criticism to investigate the importance of form in creating meaning in a literary work.
Materials and Methods
Relying on the fundamental theories of Formalist  literary critics, and applying them to two poems from English and Persian literature, the article tries to verify and explain the meaning of form and its significance in creating the meaning. It has used descriptive-analytical method to investigate  how meaning and form are interwoven.
Research Findings
Mark Schorer’s Technique as Discovery  borrows Shklovsky’s article Art as Technique to discuss the role of form not only in making literary text different from other forms of writing but also in creating the meaning of any work of art. Techniques used by authors problamatises ideas and concepts in literary works through the tension they create in a work. What makes a literary work different from other works is the several layers of opposite meanings created in the former which is absent in the latter. A critic’s job is to discover and analyse those techniques which give rise to these tensions in a specific text.
Discussion of Results and conclusion
Poetry is never fully understood without delving into its form. Form, beyond discovering meaning, is inevitably influential on creating meaning. Both Wordsworth and Shamlou, through their specific poetic forms have created multi-layered meaning in their poems. Form has contributed not only to giving rise to meaning but also to save it from being narrow and restricted.
 
 

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References

منابع  

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Wordsworth, W. (2007). Lyrical Ballads. Penguin Classics.

References

Abrams, M.H. (1953). The Mirror and the Lamp. Oxford University Press.
Abrams, M.H. (1993). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Harcourt Brace Colledge Publications.
Bertens, H. (2024). Literary Theory: The Basics. Routledge.
Brooks, C. (1947). The Well-Wrought Urn. Dobson Books.
Cureton, R. (2020). A Reading in Temporal Poetics: Wordsworth’s It Is a Beauteous Evening. Style, 52, 199-222.
Khozan, M. (1991). Honar Abzare Kashf. Kiyan, 1, 56-63. [In Persian]
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Shorer, Mark (1948). Technique as Discovery. The Hudson Review, 1, 67-87.
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Shamloo, A. (1992). Baghe Ayeneh. Tehran: Morvarid. [In Persian]
Shklovsky, V. (1917). Art as Technique in Lodge David (ed.), Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader (1988). New York: Longman.
Wordsworth, W. (2007). Lyrical Ballads. Penguin Classics.
 
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Rhetoric and Grammar Studies
Volume 16, Issue 29
March 2026
Pages 87-101

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